Finally, some time!

Oh my goodness, have I been busy!  Not that we all aren't, but man oh man, this last few weeks has just flattened me.  We have almost finished Summer I session.  Rumor had it that the summer sessions were easy, especially compared to the past two semesters.  I don't know where this information came from, or who started those awful rumors, but they were completely untrue.  We had a researched clinical encounter paper due, a reflection journal, three days of clincals, and one day of class every week.  And wow! those clincal encounter papers were no joke.  They were each over ten pages.  I couldn't face the computer after writing those every week.

But enough complaining.  I learned so much.  This was our community health rotation, and I was at the health department, a uninsured clinic (the MERCI Clinic), and the soup kitchen.  It was truly amazing.  I found it really inspiring and gratifying to working with underserved populations.  I hope to work in a hospital after I'm licensed, but after being at the MERCI Clinic I know that I want to volunteer time with something like that.

So I haven't had much time to knit lately.  I've worked on a few things, so hopefully I can get those on here soon.  My Little Oak cardigan is about halfway through the yoke.

I'm loving the way the leaves are starting to pop off the yoke.  The variations of brown in the yarn are just enough to give the sweater some interest without getting in the way of the detail on the yoke.  I've decided to add some ribbon backing to the button band (once I knit it).  I want something to give the buttons a little more stability, especially since I'm giving this to a non-knitter.  I don't want it to seem "too delicate" for every day use.

The monkeys are a printed satin ribbon.  Perfect for a little fun cardigan.  I can't wait to finish this.

In other news, I've been trying to play in the yard a bit.  I was turning the compost bin and sifting through the almost-dirt to see what I can pull out.  (I throw a lot of stuff in the compost bin "just to see" what will happen.  I don't use the compost on any flowers or vegetables, or I would be a bit more concerned about proper balance of nitrogen and green vs. brown compost.  Mainly, I'm trying to keep organic, compostable things out of a landfill.  I compost things like pizza boxes and movie popcorn bags.  I tossed the hepa filter from the vacuum in there, just in case the filter was paper, but it wasn't and I pulled it out six months later--looking exactly the same.)

But my point here is that sometimes I find interesting things in the barrel.  Like the plastic liners of to go cups and ice cream containers that some people don't even realize are there.  And this:

This is a pile of hems and elastics from a bunch of clothing that I tossed in the compost barrel a few months ago.  Clothing that was too worn out to go to a charity shop, or not really appropriate for a charity shop (boxer shorts, underwear), or clothing that I had cut up to use as dust towels around the house that had finally become too worn to use even as dust cloths.  I love this.  I really, truly get excited about seeing this.  The pile of clothing this came from would probably have filled a small trash bin.  Now it fits in two hands.  That is, really, very very cool.

And, to end, a cute dog picture of Charlie.

In my absence

Well, I've been away from here much longer than I thought I would be.  I've composed many posts in my head but haven't had the time or energy to get them actually written.  Since I've been here last, I've finished my second semester of nursing school and started the summer session.  At this point, I am 61 days away from being eligible to take the nursing boards.  This is both exciting and terrifying.

Of course, other things have happened.

Like finishing Baktus.

I'm happy with how this eventually turned out.  I love the Noro against the navy yarn.  I had really hoped to be able to just wear it, but it turned out that it needed a pretty severe blocking.

Baktus, folded in half.  Note the "center" point is not in the center.

Baktus, folded on the the center point.  See the crazy difference in length?  Tension issues.

Baktus getting a severe stretching.
I love it.  The knitting, although boring, was great simply because it was boring.  I'm thinking of making another one.  I'm not sure if it will be a true Baktus, in the triangle shape, or simply a garter stitch scarf in two row stripes.  I'm thinking of these colors:

This picture is a bit washed out, but it gives the general idea.  I love the grey with the pink and green.  If you look close, you can also see a lovely lavender under the spring green.  But Noro.  Oh, Noro.  

Within Noro there lies a dark heart.  You see that rusty orange?  Yeah, not so much.  At least not with the grey.  I'm on the fence here.  Should I just go ahead with the grey and Noro as is?  Should I cut out the offensive color?  Or should I look for something other than the grey?  Oh the humanity!

I know this is just a quick check in, and I've got more to say, so I'm hoping to get back here tomorrow.  So until then, I will leave you with a gratuitous cute dog picture.

A Dog's Life

I've started a new little project.  Little Oak (Rav link) by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting.  I'm making it in a hand dyed chocolately brown color that looks amazing in person, but is really hard to photograph.  I tried to get a good picture on the coffee table.

But the picture didn't show off the subtle variations of chocolate brown that really give the yarn some depth.  (And really, make it the reason for knitting with a brown yarn.  I can't think of any reason I would want to knit with plain, solid brown.  Especially on something where stitches must be picked up.  My eyes, while not poor, are not up to that particular challenge.)

So I moved to a table near a window with more sunlight.

Much better picture.  At least here you can see the depth of color.  But, as is wont to happen 'round these parts, a dog got a whiff of something new on the table.

So Fred popped up to investigate the yarn.  This is a really bad picture of Fred, because he is all white and the sunlight was directly on him.  But really, what he wanted wasn't the yarn.

Fred was really trying to get to the window.  Things outside must be investigated at regular intervals.  And of course, when one tires of looking out the window, the seat becomes a bed.

Yup, the dogs have a window seat.  The dogs were constantly on the end table to look out the window, so rather than try to change the dogs' behavior, I developed an alternate solution.  Take two little side tables, cover them with blankets--enough that the dog using the seat can still see out when said dog is lying down--and voila! no more dogs on the end table!  Or rather, one dog on the window seat and one dog on the end table, looking over the head of the dog on the window seat.

I think it is noteworthy, too, that in order to take this picture I had to scoot back into the corner of the room--and onto a dog bed on the floor.  These dogs are not in need of places to sleep.  There is a dog bed in every room, including the kitchen.  When Mike asked why we needed so many dog beds, I asked him if he had a place to sit in every room.  It seemed very logical to me.

This is to say that out house is extremely dog friendly.  We have baskets of dog toys, and hooks for dog things, half a closet devoted to dog stuff, and the dogs pretty much are allowed anywhere we go.  They can be trying, and they bark at things and sometimes have accidents when we are gone too long, but it sure is nice to come home to all that fluffy love.

And in a related story, I've finished my Baktus.

Details and better pictures to come.

Green Grocery Bags

My sister has been organizing swaps through Facebook.  Sometimes I've been able to join in, and sometimes I haven't.  The swap she coordinated for March was The Green Swap.  Because this swap fell during my spring break I was able to join.

I'm not sure what she had in mind when she picked green (I'm thinking she was probably influenced by St. Patrick's Day) but when I think of "green" I think of "eco."  I wanted to come up with something that incorporated the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra that I live by.  The project I decide on--t-shirt bags--is by no means original (Martha Stewart featured this in 2007, and I'm sure they are all over Pintereset), but because I used my own t-shirts, it is unique.

You start by cutting the arms off a t-shirt.

Then you cut out the neck.

Most of my t-shirts had a higher neckline, so I used a plate to trace a half circle cutting line.  You want the neck to be open enough to get stuff into the bag.

Then (and I don't have a picture of this part) you turn the shirt inside out and sew the bottom shut.  I think we can all imagine what that looks like.  You end up with a big cotton grocery bag.

I thought about zig-zagging the raw edge of the handles so they don't unravel like Lindsay Lohan on court day, but I didn't.  For one, it seemed like a lot of work for the dozen bags I made.  And two, I've never noticed a problem with t-shirt fabric unraveling before.  Most guys have (unfortunately) made muscle t-shirts out of regular t-shirts, and those always (unfortunately) hold up well.

The best thing about these grocery bags is they are washable, unlike the bag that most grocery stores sell (the ones made out of recycled soda bottles).  I also love that they take something that might have gone into a landfill and made it useful.  I think using t-shirts like this actually extends their life longer than if I had dropped them off at a charity store, where they would get used for a bit and then thrown out.  And I love having unique bags at the grocery.

And the whole whack of them, waiting to be packed up and sent along to the fabulous ladies in the swap.

I would love to go shopping with these colorful bags!

Goodies in the Mail

Don't you love coming home to wonderful things in the mail!  I know I do.  I love getting the mail, even on the days when it is nothing exciting.  I love letters and magazines and catalogs and Bed, Bath & Beyond flyers.  But packages are especially wonderful--even when you know they are coming.

My MIL told Mike that she sent a package.  She also told him to wait until I got home to open it.

And then she reminded him again, on the outside of the package.  Good thing, too, because I actually got home first and found this on the porch.  Without the warning I might have slipped and opened it without Mike around.

You see, I knew what was in there.  The most delicious chocolate in the world.

A chocolate fudge Easter egg from Sayklly's in Escanaba, Michigan.  We grew up getting these eggs at Easter.  If you buy them at the store they will write your name on them in yellow icing.  Sayklly's is the only fudge I eat.  It is soooooo good.  Nothing else compares to it, so why even bother.  It is a family owned business where the chocolate is still handmade.  They also sell Yooper Bars, which are the best milk chocolate bars I've ever had.  Every now and then my mother will send us a dozen.  We keep a few and send the rest with Mike to work.  Someone always asks where they can get more of them.

But that wasn't all!  I also got a lovely new knitting bag, perfect for small projects.

Which is great, because I accidentally ordered some new sock yarn.

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Limited Edition for Jimmy Beans Wool in the color Winter is Coming.  Oh yeah, the Game of Thrones color.  The color I received is a bit paler than the color that shows on the website, but it is still very "winter-ish" (or maybe I should say "Snow-ish").  Dark grey, light grey, icy blue, and a little hint of mauve.  I originally ordered the color for Mike, and he said that he is still happy with the color (even with the mauve-y pink) so this will be another pair for him.  Perhaps I will cast on while watching the premiere of Season 3.  (I won't.  I don't knit while watching Game of Thrones.  Too much going on.)

I also have some new reading material.  3191 Miles Apart (the bloggers) now publish a quarterly magazine.  I say "now publish" but since that is issue 9 and issue 10, they have been publishing for at least two and a half years.  But since this is the first I have heard of it, it is "now publish" to me.  I used to read their blog quite a bit, but stopped for some reason or another.  (This sometimes happens when I switch computers, since none of my bookmarks follow me.  I'm told there are ways to make that happen; I just don't know any of them.  But now I get to re-discover blogs that used to share my day.  Kind of like happening across an old buddy at the pub.  Lots to catch up on.)

Now off to work on those other socks, so my needles will soon be free for Winter is Coming!  Ohmygoshjustonemoreweek!  Game of Thrones!  I just can't wait!

The Dreaded Pantry Cupboard

Linking up with Jules at Pancakes and French Fries as part of the William Morris Project.  Check out her blog for lots of great links!

This house has one of those "pantry cupboards" in the kitchen.  The cupboard is as big as a refrigerator, and has four roll-out type shelves.  I know that people love these cupboards, but I really don't.  All the hardware necessary to make the shelves roll takes up a lot of room, not to mention that the shelf is actually a shallow drawer, meaning that there is even less space for pantry items.  And it is really hard to organize!

Case in point:

Things are just thrown in, with no real rhyme or reason.  Except for the all the plasticware being on the bottom shelf.  A closer look?  Sure.  Here we go, from top to bottom.

Ugh.  What a dump!  But after a little bit of time, some rearranging of foodstuffs, and some vacuuming (I shake my fist at you, onions and potatoes!), I now know what is in here.

The plasticware has all been sorted and nested.  We are moving slowly to glass storage containers, which are kept in a different cupboard (where they won't roll around when I pull out the "shelf"), but I'm not willing to just throw away all the plastic.

This shelf probably had the most dramatic turn around.  I put most of the dried beans into wide mouth quart mason jars and found a couple of baskets for potatoes, onions, garlic, and ginger.  Hopefully the baskets mean that I won't have to drag my vacuum to the cupboard again.  I like the mason jar idea, but eventually I would like something a bit bigger.  A one pound bag of beans does not quite fit into a quart jar.  I've labelled them with masking tape since I think I will want something else eventually, but these were here and they function so much better than the pile of bags that I had going on before.

Mainly jars on one side, mainly bags of stuff on the other.  I suppose this would be the condiment/breakfast/dried fruit shelf.

And then the tea.  More than half this shelf is tea.  The mason jars on the left are the large tea bags I use for iced tea.  (I had a lot of mason jars around.)  After seeing this, I think I should probably hold off on buying tea for awhile.  Especially since there is also this in the kitchen:

Yup. More tea.  The pretty containers make it out of the cupboard.  Fourteen (!) more tea varieties.  Geez, I hope tea doesn't go bad.  Habit or vice?  At this point, I'm not sure.

Anyone else have any "healthy vices"?

Working through the To Do List

In an effort to plow through another item on my Spring Break To Do List (list item: start Hedgerow Mitts), I had to locate a pair of US 1 needles.  Since I couldn't find any (which doesn't mean that I don't have any US 1s free; it just means I can't find them [see list item: organize the stash {which was supposed to encompass the stash closet, and thus the needles}]) (Really, Karen?  Three different types of parantheticals?) I had to dig out the unfinished socks, which was actually a good thing, since another list item involved the UFOs.

And I found my favorite US 1 needles on the green socks.

The needles are the really nice Blue Sky Alpaca wooden needles.  I have a set of nine, because I broke one needle so I bought a complete new set.  I like to knit socks with five needles, so four wouldn't cut it for me.  And actually, I really like having the extra needles.  It makes picking up gusset stitches really easy.  I've started using the extra needles to pick up the stitches on both sides before I start knitting the round, since picking up stitches is almost my least favorite thing to do in knitting.  As of tonight, the second sock here is actually knit up to the beginning of the heel flap.  So progress. 

But I have US 1 needles on another pair, too.

These needles are metal, and longer than the Blue Sky.  I think the Blue Sky needles are five inches, and these are six.  This morning I was working on these socks (morning light means good time to work on dark blue yarn) and the needles felt almost too long.  The metal was really slippery, too, after using the nice grippy wood.  I think these are Hiya Hiya stainless steel needles, and really slick.  I got used to them right quick, but there was a momentary learning curve.  This sock is almost down the the heel flap.  

The purple and blue striped pair are on US 0 needles.

As you can see, there are two types of needles on this sock.  I started this sock on the Lantern Moon US 0 bamboo needles and snapped one needle right in half.  Jimmy Beans Wool replaced the one needle (quickly, too, and without question; great customer service!) but I found some metal Susan Bates one needles in the stash.  I still haven't worked on it since the new needle arrived, though.

The last pair is on US 1s, but on two circulars.

I'm through the heel flap on this one, which means that I am ready to turn the heel.  After that, we all know, comes the picking up of the stitches.  As much as I don't like picking up stitches, I really don't like picking up stitches for the gusset with a circular needle.  It is really fiddly and involves a lot of moving about stitches, and I just don't like it.  So these have been sitting at this point for over a year.

And yes, that is Deborah Norville yarn I'm using.  Glad you noticed.

I honestly didn't notice this until I started to photograph these socks.  But too funny.  I guess Vanna White shouldn't have all the fun!  (I bought this yarn from Hancock Fabrics about a year and a half ago, but I don't know anything else about this line.  I've never seen it anywhere else that I know of.)

Despite not finding some free needles to start the Hedgerow Mitts, I did get something accomplished on them.  I wound the yarn.

I consider that to be a start.  So at least I get to check that item off my list!  

It is so hard to capture the subtleties of hand painted yarn in a photo.  This is MadelineTosh sock in Pop Rocks, and it is about sixteen different shades of pink.  I can't wait to see this knit up.  I need something bright and cheerful to work on, and I think this fits the bill.  Hopefully the socks hogging my needles will be finished soon, and I get working on this happy color.

Now I'm off to watch Nashville and knit on my dark and stormy blue socks.  (Sort of fits with Nashville, don't you think?  Does anyone else watch this show?  I love it.  And I'm not a "country" music fan.  I do love, though, singer/songwriters with an interesting, folk-type style.  And I adore Scarlett on the show.  I'm hooked.)