Author: beverly

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No Rules for Me

I promise I will provide an update to the EDS. Now that the yarn sort is over and Mr. Honey has revealed his plan for how he will get the bags in order and lined up, we can move on to other yarny things. I figure the best thing to concentrate on is Elizabeth’s Daughter’s Sweater. I promise there is more to it than the time I took this impromptu photo some weeks back.

For one, the back is done and the front is on the needles and being worked up. Because I was in Phoenix and then the hospital, I have lost the time I work on it in the morning and I am making that time up by working double shifts. I have read the pattern – it is the Echelon sweater by Michelle Wang. I don’t have the idea that she will ever read this blog but just in case, I will note she shouldn’t take it personally that I modified her pattern. I modify all patterns, even my own. I’ve never read a pattern I just did the way they said. Maybe, when I first started out, but the moment I realized the knit gods won’t open the ground beneath my feet because I changed an instruction, it was no rules for me.

I modified the stitch. I modified the increases, shaping and decreases. I’m pretty sure the only thing left of the pattern is the name. Sorry, this has to be done quickly and I tarried too long as it is. But it will be a tunic type sweater just the way she designed it. Thankfully, she doesn’t need me to promote her designs. 

It’s not even a matter of thinking I can do it better. I don’t think that at all. I think of it as more of a ‘you want me to put the left needle where and do what? That sounds like too much work.’ kind of a thing. In other words, it was too complicated when I read it so I don’t want to try it and will instead convert it to something I already know. It’s a wonder I can do something more than garter stitch.

This no rules for me thing really only works in knitting in my life. Everywhere else, there are boundaries. But I press them when I can. So, I will update the EDS and show the pieces and then we can continue on to completion. I said the front would be quicker than the back and I do believe that is the case. You shall see for yourself.

 

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Might Be Worth It

So this may not be going quite as planned. The yarn sort is done. All the bags that had been hanging out in the hall and the bedroom have been emptied and the fiber has been placed in the storage bags or thrown away. Yes, I have thrown out yarn. I was not going to donate it or give it away and it was too tangled to do anything with so I hardened my heart and sent it to the great yarn stash beyond.

In the end, I used ten of the large, really large storage bags. I’m slightly disappointed it took only eleven or twelve. Mr. Honey originally bought three boxes (which are nine bags total) and bought me three more boxes. There is one box unopened and the other was opened with one taken out but I was able to consolidate two bags into one and return the empty bag to the box. 

The room looks worse than before. Not really, but I thought the bags would line up nice and pretty. Mr. Honey stepped into the room and said I should make path to the bookcase and take out some paperbacks to donate to the PADS folks the next time we go. He said the bags would ‘line up then.’

No, they won’t. Because I was already in the bookcase and they didn’t line up then. 

I am afraid this was just round one. I think I will have to go through the room again and start taking more stuff out. On the other hand, I could knit more. That would eventually clean the room out. I would have to knit about 20 hours a day and live for another 60 years, making me the oldest person on the planet but the room would be clean.

The sacrifice might be worth it.

 

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Returning to Normal

So, I think things are returning to normal. I am working on the EDS – and I am happy to report the back is done and the front is about to hit the needles. How much you want to bet it goes faster? I am working on item 9/10 of the September collection..egads, that’s going to take some knitting to catch up with that. I’m not counting on it.

But I am, in the interest of being in Knitsville, going to show you the hat patterns I was working on.

 

The first is the Cable All Around Beanie. It’s a little retro fresh. Did it in Ice Yarns Saver in green.

Then there’s the DNA Beanie. Done in Ice Yarns Saver in Cream and Caron One Pound in Claret. Both patterns are written up and need to be formatted. There’s another pattern I did before this when I was on track and I have one more to do. I know the pattern. I just have to figure out of I am going to use three different yarns or use a variegated or self striping yarn. I still haven’t used the Ice Glitz and it could provide an interesting variation. Don’t know what I’m going to do. I have to knit a prayer shawl so I have some time to think about it. Also have a hat order. That should give me enough time to think about it. If I go with three colors, do I use three distinct colors or variations of one?

See, crazy thinking. Like I said, returning to normal.

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Totally My Fault

This is totally my fault. I wanted to let you know about the wedding (it was beautiful) and seeing the family (it was fun) and the weather in Phoenix (I don’t remember but let’s go with hot.)

But I can’t. We flew into Phoenix on a Wednesday. The wedding was Friday night and we flew back to Chicago on Saturday night and we went from the airport directly to the ER and I spent four days in the Resurrection Hospital hotel.

Diagnosis: Cellulitis. Do not ask me how I contracted a skin disease. I got it before we left and we went to Phoenix with me in discomfort and came back with me in pain. Mr. Honey took a photo of it – you don’t want to see it. Good thing we didn’t go before the wedding or we would not have made it. With all that, there is news in Knitsville.

Mr. Honey had to learn how to ship packages. While I was in the hospital, I had two orders that needed to be shipped. At the time, there was no telling when I would be home so he had to handle to ‘ready to ship’ items. Knitsville has a new postal employee. He forgot to add the free pen to one of the orders but no one knows it’s coming anyway and I forgot to tell him to add the business cards but those things can be forgiven. The good news is all packages were sent.

I also got a special order right before I left and he brought me the things I needed to make it. Here’s the thing about knitting in the hospital; it seems like it would be a great environment to get some stitching in but there are so many distractions. When you contract a skin infection, at least in my case, there were surgeons (it’s a teaching hospital so there were residents in my room at 5 am) infectious disease doctors (for some reason, I needed two of those), my case manager, the head nurse, six nursing students and a chaplain. Not counting the nurse, nurse assistant and my primary care physician, the people who came in to take my blood and do an ultrasound and the guys who came to take me to get a CT done. And the wound nurse (whom I adored.) See what I mean? Not a lot of knitting was done. The hat was finished a couple of days after I got home because I had to recover from my cure.

So, it’s totally my fault that there is no more knitting done. I’ve missed the deadline to finish the September line and start the October line and there aren’t more things in the shop that are ready to ship which is a drag on business. But the good news is the folks in Knitsville were there for me and things are back on track if not exactly caught up. I finished the hat and shipped it, I finished item 6/10 and I am designing a new cabled beanie and I am back with you guys. If there are any of you guys out there. 

Both my legs are wrapped and taped from toe to knee and I have started therapy so there’s a new fun time in Knitsville. But I am working on the EDS and all is right with the main part of the world. I’m itching to get stitching.

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I Don’t Even Know

I’m sure there should be some kind of photo here. But I don’t even know what that picture should be. The news in Knitsville; the news from the yarn room redux is a bit confusing. For certain and ‘in progress’ photo of the actual space is not gonna happen. Because it cannot be agreed upon, this will have to do:

On the one hand, the yarn sorting is going well. There are big Hefty storage bags filled with yarns sorted by types. The problem is there aren’t enough bags. The yarn sorted so far is the yarn that is still in the yarn room. Not the bags that have been in the hallway and the bedroom for the past couple of weeks. 

There will be more bags needed. Maybe not as many as nine but probably more than three. I’m thinking we should do six. Mr. Honey came downstairs the other day and asked why I have more yarn in the yarn room than when I started the sorting. I assured him I had not. I had to think about it a little. Maybe I did a sneak of some yarn in the room while I was sleep shopping walking. Don’t look at me that way; it’s a thing. There was an episode of Criminal Minds where a guy killed people while sleep walking. Sleep shopping doesn’t involve the breaking of the law or any of the commandments. Nope, I didn’t do any of that. I had to explain to him that we couldn’t see all that was in there when it was all a jumble but now that there is some kind of controlled chaos, it looks like there’s more. But I was really surprised there wasn’t more. I also had to admit I was surprised the bags filled up and we’re gonna need more bags.

The good citizens of Knitsville have resolved that I will not have one of those pristine ‘studio’ kinds of yarn room. I have the spare bedroom that is still painted bachelor beige from Mr. Honey’s bachelor days and is small and dark yarn room. They will love me anyway.

In more knitting like knitting news, I am on 6/10 – yes with just two days to go. I am not going to make it. Nor is the afghan for my niece’s wedding going to be done. Though, I did have the idea of creating a new pattern for the afghan and that can go as one of my items this month – because I am clever like that. I am challenging myself to get the afghan done. The wedding is next Friday at 6 in the evening. Why the heck not? Stay tuned. Let’s see how this turns out.

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Pillow Talk

Photo by Andrea Davis from Pexels

There’s all kinds of pillow talk. Mr. Honey goes to bed well before I do but I went to bed early (before midnight) and he wasn’t fully asleep so I felt free to talk. The conversation went something like this:

I’ve decided how to sort the yarn.
Oh.
Well, it decided for itself. It’s being sorted by brand/type. But I’ve run into a snag.
A bag snag? (Followed by laughter because he cracks himself up
Do the remnants get their own bag? I think I need a bag for miscellaneous yarn. Yarn that I don’t buy regularly or will never buy again.
Do you actually use remnants?
Sure. The afghan downstairs is being made with remnants.
Wow. (He is impressed with the falling leaves afghan.) I approve.
You approve?
Of the way you’re sorting.
But do the remnants get their own bag?
Yes and the miscellaneous yarn, too.

Don’t envy me what happens in my bedroom when the lights go out. Do your own pillow talk.

Today’s decluttering uncovered a package of medium yarn bobbins still in their packaging. These were purchased on my last trip to Denver or the previous one – which means they were purchased about four years ago. Which is probably the last time I saw them. They were just sitting on the floor underneath another tote bag filled with yarn. I’ve learned to just forgive myself and move on. 

I also rediscovered the doors to my bookcase. I have a really beautiful bookcase in the yarn room. This is the bookcase that doesn’t have yarn books but regular, normal books on the shelves. I am sure some of these books can make their way to the Economy Shop when the other books finally start going there. I say this because I also rediscovered two boxes of books Mr. Honey brought up to the yarn room a few years ago. My books had been living in the garage and he thought 20 years of that was enough. He set me up outside and made me cull down my books. I think a quarter of the books went away, a quarter went back into the garage (because he ain’t the boss of me) and the rest ended up in the yarn room. This weekend will find me dealing with books instead of yarn. That will be a nice reprieve and maybe I will find this book I’ve been wanting to reread.

Is it weird I’m a little excited about getting this stuff sorted? 

 

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Is That a Light?

The yarn room decluttering continues. Mr. Honey is a much better housekeeper than I. It made sense to me to ask him how I should start to tackle the free range yarn but then I remembered who I was married to.

Mr. Honey, when asked his opinion, never has one. He will either stare at you blankly or go into a dissertation on something that has nothing to do with the question. On the other hand, when you don’t need, desire or even thinking about asking his opinion, he is right there to tell you what to do. 

So when I deferred to his domestic skills and asked how he thinks I should go about tackling the free range with the stipulation I wasn’t going to buy more containers; his reply was: “You have to clear it out.” Ahhhh. 

But then he does his other Mr. Honey thing. He will come back 12, 24, 36 hours later and say “I’ve been thinking about your question.” He then proceeded to tell me about the idea of getting those big storage bags and some Velcro. I sort the yarn, I attach Velcro to each bag and attach the bags to each other and that way they will all be together. 

Don’t mind the idea about the bags. They will take up way less space than the containers and will be more convenient. The Velcro idea is out because they don’t need to hang out together. Though I admit the thought of creating a yarn bag Stonehenge did occur to me.

He then took his idea way too far. “You can write down each thing you put in the bag and make two copies: one on the bag and one for you to keep.”

He forgot who he was married to. It’s like he doesn’t know me at all.

He bought me nine of those 20 gallon Ziploc big bags – because he’s an optimist and thinks that will be enough. The sort is being done by brand/type. So far, I have a bag for all the cake yarn and one pound skeins. One bag for yarn that comes from Hobby Lobby, a bag holding Red Heart yarn. I haven’t decided who else will share that bag but someone will and a bag with Lion Brand and Hayfield.

I’ve made myself a little giddy: i found some of my large yarn bobbins, a set of Chibi needles. I thought I had all of them and I vacuumed a space where bags of yarn used to be. Yes, I got giddy or vacuuming a small space. Be happy for me.

I thought I would take a photo the EDS – Elizabeth’s Daughter’s Sweater. I am on the section where I am putting in the increases and because I don’t understand what the designer is asking for, I am doing the increases my way. Acknowledging the written instructions are probably easier in the end.

The afghan is also coming along. I am adding five leaves a day and that should have me cruising end before we get on the plane. I am also on item 5/10. I finished the 

pattern. OK, you can get a taste. It’s the lace and cable beanie. 

As long as I keep myself on task this first hour of the day, the sweater and the yarn room will advance. Is that a light? It’s an extremely long tunnel but I see something flickering. It’s not a train. It could be daylight. Let’s hope for the best.

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The Diurnal Tide

Lest you think there is really nothing going on here in Knitsville, let me assure you the citizens of our fair village are keeping an eye on me. At least one eye each. I have several projects going on with the idea of finishing each of them by the end of September.

  1. The Do You Collection. I am on item 4/10. It’s a pattern. A cable and lace hat. It’s already on the needles. I’m on the ribbing and that leaves me a minute to think about how the rest of it is going to go. Slouchy or beanie? Slouchy. Big increases or small? Just enough.
  2. The Elizabeth sweater. It is going along and I look at the calendar and look at the fact that I started over and I’m still on the first part of the first part and I think maybe I need to work on it for more than part of an hour a day. On the other hand, knit math has been very good to me and I don’t want to make the knit gods angry by appearing greedy. Besides, there’s other knitting to be done. (See 1 above and 4 below.)
  3. The decluttering of the yarn room. This is where the diurnal tide has hit me. One the one hand, the high is there because I am doing the cleaning and decluttering and it really looks good. On the other hand, man, how the heck did it get so out of hand and now I understand why Mr. Honey said he had to create a work around rather than nag me constantly. I appreciate it. I appreciate what he has suffered. That’s the low tide.

4. The wedding afghan is going on as well. Now that, I did take a photo of.This is where it was when last I worked on it. It was looking promising. The photo below is where it is now.

I counted the squares and calculated how many I have left to get it to square off. This is going to have me tearing my hair out which makes me grateful I have a very short hair cut to begin with. No one will really notice anything is amiss. 

The photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s really pretty. It’s stunning. And again, the diurnal tide plays with me. I started this on purpose and now that’s there’s a finite amount of time to get it done, I will have to resolve myself to watching episodes of Criminal Minds while working on it followed by watching the 1965 version of Cinderella to keep me from losing my criminal mind.

There has to be more progress made before the weekend. We are headed to San Antonio. We are going for a memorial service for a cousin I played with as a child. It’s a quick turnaround and then shortly after, we (and the afghan) will be headed to Phoenix for the wedding.

Tides.

 

 

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Moving Closer

The rest of the office is still in shambles. There won’t be any before photos because even with great after pictures, that would still qualify me for the next Hoarders special. I can live without that.

But we are moving closer to the finish line – kinda like mile three of a marathon closer. There’s so much ahead but, hey, there’s something behind.

Today I tickled myself something when I cleaned from under the desk. I sat there and admired it for a second. (I admit, I just did it again.) 

This is how my first hout every morning goes: I come to the computer and fire it up. Because it’s a few years old, it takes a bit to fire up so I pull out the sweater and start working on it. (I have until the end of the month to get it done and I started it over at the beginning of the month so…) Once the computer is ready, I open two separate windows: one for the Yarn Harlot which, because I am weird quirky I’ve started from the beginning. Fourteen years ago. I’ve read the blog on and off and each time it’s on, I start over. Some of the posts are familiar, always entertaining. So I knit while reading a post and the idea is to read until my mind is ready to do my own post from Knitsville. 

I read a post while knitting. When the post is done, I get to finish the row I’m working on. Sometimes it’s a good portion of the row, sometimes just a few stitches and then I have to do something that pushes the room progress forward. Today, that was under the desk. (Yes, I just admired it again.) 

What is usually under the desk are the three electrical strips holding all the electronic together: a computer, a laptop, printer, telephone and modem. What was under the desk were a myriad of other things that I didn’t know was underneath there. Including a ruler I knew I had but since I have another one that looks just like it, thought maybe didn’t exist. A necklace someone gave me that I loved so much it has been under the desk for…years? And one of my yarn bobbins. And a bunch of paillettes. Small holed ones that I wasn’t going to use and don’t understand how they got under there…loose. The broom and the vacuum made short, satisfying work of the mess under the desk and now all that is there are the cords that are supposed to be there.

So, the bookcase, the space between the bookcase and the desk, the desk and under the desk have all been reclaimed by the sane part of my psyche. The rest of it still has to be done but there is something to be said about moving closer. My spirit is lifted just that much more. 

This has been a good hour. Some progress made on the sweater and the room and my blog post inspiration. That’s already a good day and it’s just getting started. I have to go downstairs and do my workout (strength training) and make my cereal (no bake granola and it’s soooooo good.)

And knitting. Everest. I’m on top of Everest…well, moving closer. 

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On the Road

We are on the road every summer. I should say we are in the air. It depends on where we’re going. I think I might have mentioned that we go on Cubs away games during the baseball season. It started with us just going to Milwaukee once or twice but there were only so many times we could go there and the Milwaukee Zoo – which, if you like zoos is pretty good. 

I felt the need to expand our horizons. So I suggested we go to a different major league ballpark every season. This, is the height for us. Our traveling before this was going to Disney World every other year. I don’t know how many trips we took before it hit me to just go in alphabetical order and make the deciding easier. Asking a question to Mr. Honey can take anywhere from one to sixteen weeks to get an answer. He likes to look at things from every angle and then make sure the angles don’t have angles that need looking at. So, I just tell him where we’re going early on so he can angle look all he needs before we eventually book the trip.

This plan was working really well until we discovered our nephew, he lives in Denver, didn’t see much of him growing up, is a baseball player. The kid loves baseball from the time he was three. He had to choose between baseball and lacrosse and chose the former. He is a really good player.

When I played college tennis, an away trip meant we got on a bus and traveled maybe two whole hours to a different school. For him, going to school in Phoenix, an away game was coming to Chicago. So two things I loved combined into one my nephew and baseball. I have to admit the kid is good. And I wasn’t the only one to think so. He was named WAC (Western Athletic Conference) Player of the Year.

So good he was just drafted by the Cincinnati Reds after finishing university in three years.

The road to the majors can be long. He was sent to Montana to play for the Billings Mustangs. So that’s where we went on one of our trips this summer. And we drove because it ain’t easy getting from Chicago to Billings through the air. Mr. Honey mapped the trip and I made just one minor adjustment for the return trip.

We were stopping at Mt. Rushmore.

Now let me say, I am directionally challenged. I can get lost in my own house (and I have) so when I thought of South Dakota and I wasn’t looking at a map, it was always to the right of Illinois. It is decidedly to the left.

I promised Mr. Honey we wouldn’t be there for long. We had some serious miles to travel to get to our hotel on the other side of the state. And since some of the park was closed for the rest of the year and I cannot walk really long distances, there wasn’t going to be much to do but look at the monument and pop into the gift shop to get some gifts for my three great nieces who are all under the age of ten and are already presidential historians.

So, we arrived at the park, tooks some photos, went to the gift shop and the bathroom and we were on the road again in under 30 minutes. Don’t think I wasn’t sufficiently wowed. I am impressed with seeing it in person. Never thought that would happen and if we didn’t have to get over to the Minnesota side of the state, I would have been happy to hang out until we could have heard a lecture or something.

This has been a big travel season on the road for us: Arizona, Texas, Wisconsin Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. Three of the states I never visited and now I want to go through a list of the states to see how many of those I have left.

There was knitting done. I will save that for another post. Gotta leave ya wanting more.