Happy Birthday to The Teen!

Happy Birthday, Stinkerbell!!!! I Love You!!!!!!

Whoops, I Did it Again!

Call me mildly obsessed. Call me crazy. Both would likely be true. I did it. I started another ripple blanket. This one is for The Girlfriend. Math Guy requested I make one for her as her graduation gift. Since I was waffling about what to get her anyway, this sounded like a great idea. Within 24 hrs I had this in the house. A mixture of Caron Simply Soft Brites and regular colors. The only one that will not be used is the orange--they call it mango, I think. I've replaced it with white. It was going to be a surprise gift until yesterday when she spied my stash of yarn with the 6 inches or so of blanket on top--usually she is so ga-ga over MG that she has eyes for little else, but saw it she did and immediately piped up, 'What's this going to be?' My first reaction '......blink, blink,.....ummmm.........uhhhhh.....Don't be so nosey.' Obviously I am not so quick on my feet. Particularly when working on another project that I had just found a huge rip-worthy mistake in. I finally 'fessed up and told her that it was her graduation gift, at the request of MG, in colors he had pre-approved. She is happy. So am I. No pressure now to get it done. Just as long as she has it before she heads off to school in August.

MG's incarnation of the ripple blanket is currently almost halfway finished--three more stripes to reach the halfway point.

Also in progress is the Isabella top from the Spring 2007 Knitty. I'm having trouble with it. Which stinks, because I just bought a white linen skirt to wear to graduation on Saturday, and this top would be most perfect with it. I'm not going to make it. I'll try. But failure in this endeavor is inevitable. First off, my gauge was off like crazy from my swatch. The bottom was 4 inches wider than called for in the pattern. Don't ask me how, I haven't a clue. Then, the glaring mistake that made it possible for me to discover the gauge problem. I decided I'd modify the top and knit it in the round. Super! Less seaming. You guys know I do a lot of socks. I've knit sweaters in the round. Never. NEVER. Have I twisted the cast on edge. Until Saturday night apparently. Discovered yesterday afternoon when I finally had a chance to sit and knit for a bit. Rippage insued. Sigh. I won't make it. Why even try? But you know me, I will try, and get myself all in a bunch over the effort.

Have you seen the latest design by Gabriella at g.bella knits? Catalina Shawl is a rectangular shawl that I quickly added to the list. Just gorgeous. Go check it out!

Lovin' It or Could You Hear the Sigh of Relief?

C'mon, could ya? That would have been Math Guy, The Teen, and me expressing our immense relief that this school year is ovah baby!!!! (The Teen will tell you that it is technically over because she has finished all her school work that started at the beginning of the year. She does still have the rough and final drafts of her research paper to complete, and Math Guy has a powerpoint presentation to wrap-up.) But my work is done here. (Insert Snoopy Happy Dance)

I must admit that it is a bittersweet time for me. As you know, Math Guy is due to graduate next weekend.....then just a couple of months, and he'll be off to college. He's ready. That's as it should be. I'm not ready to have him stretch his wings and fly away from home. But I know that I must allow him that freedom. It's why we've done what we've done for the last 17 years. He's a good boy, and I pray he will be a good man.

Math Guy Then (circa 1993)

Math Guy Now

Random Things

A couple of folks have tagged me for this one, so I'll participate.

Rules: Each person tagged gives seven random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write on their blogs seven facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and need to read your blog

1. I've known my husband since 6th grade, although we didn't date until after high school.
2. In my opinion, Sean Connery is the best James Bond, but Daniel Craig is a really close second. I can't stand to watch the other ones.
3. Court TV is my favorite lunchtime viewing. I easily get sucked into the trials they show. Come July the programming is supposed to change, and not for the better to my mind. Looks like they will be pulling all but the bare minimum of trial coverage. I'm pretty bummed.
4. As a child of the 60s, my family didn't get our first color TV until I was in middle school. My first TV with a remote? After I was married in the mid-80s.
5. I have no less than eight books by my bed waiting to be read.
6. I am NOT a girly-girl. Jeans and a 3/4 sleeve white button up shirt is the outfit in which I am most comfortable.
7. I've lived in the same house for the last 17 years. Two of my children have known no other home, and we moved here when the eldest was 7 months old.

I'm tagging no one, if you want to list 7 random things about yourself~~go for it. It was pretty fun coming up with them. Thanks, Nadine and Laurie for the push.

Ripplin' Along

Today I finished the first third of the ripple blanket for Math Guy~~that's 17 stripes (3 rows each stripe). It is approximately 55 inches wide and 25 inches long. I should wind up with a blanket about 75 inches in length. I've enjoyed working on it so far and will likely remain fairly monogamous until it is finished. Hopefully it will be all wrapped up and ends woven in by June 21st, which is the first day of the Summer of Socks KAL (sign-ups through May 26th, so don't delay).

Plans for knitting (and crocheting) for the summer include: finishing the ripple blanket, knitting 3 pairs of socks~~one of which will be Cookie A's Monkey socks, finishing the sleeves for the Cambridge Jacket. Oh yeah, I ordered some KP CotLin for a tank, too. That's to start with and as always, plans are subject to change based on my changing whims.

Lovin' It

This week the love is all about VACATION!

We left Sunday morning for Kiptopeke State Park on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. We haven't been camping since The Terror was born, so it was time. The kids have been asking. I have been asking. We finally decided to just do it.

Sunday night we went for a hike in the woods and along the beach. Even the dog had a good time splashing in the water.

Monday brought the only day suitable for taking the boat out and fishing, so the kids and Mr. Fix-it hit the high seas of the Chesapeake Bay while I explored the flora and fauna of the park. KSP has a hawk observatory, and while on my walk I saw what I found out later to be an osprey enjoying its breakfast. There are miles of well-groomed trails. I walked for two hours and enjoyed every minute of it. Meanwhile Math Guy was getting seasick out on the boat, so Mr Fix-it dropped all the kids off and headed back out to catch some fish (Fish 1 Mr. Fix-it 0). The kids and I headed to the playground.

On Tuesday we set out to visit Chincoteague and Assateague Wildlife Refuges. We took Shadow with us. Well, it turns out the pets are not allowed on the refuge~~even in a vehicle. We had driven 90 min to get there, and there was on way we were going to turn around and head back without seeing the ponies. So we rented bikes and rode into the refuge (turns out if you ride bikes in there is no entrance fee. )

The Terror thought he was the coolest thing on wheels in his little trailer. Problem was pulling him into the 25 mph headwind.

As it turns out, we didn't see any ponies on the refuge. (If you've ever read Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry, these are ponies descended from the same stock.) When we took The Teen and Math Guy back when they were around 8 and 5 the ponies walked right across the road in front of us. A huge group of them. Close enough to touch. Guess that was our one shot at it. We had to settle for pictures of the ponies at the place where we rented the bikes.

We enjoyed time at the beach each day. It was so good to see the kids just enjoying being together. It happens so rarely with two teens living under the same roof. I am so thankful for the great family time we had!

Edited to add: If you left a comment between late in the evening of May 12-May 14 I am unable to respond as Haloscan went through some growing pains during that time and didn't include email addresses along with the comment notification. All seems to be running properly at the moment, and I will strive to respond to your comments in a timely manner! Thanks for all the kind words on my Petal socks and family photo!

We're Back....and a Meme

We arrived home this morning~~feeling tired, smelling of campfire smoke, and counting among our blessings our wonderful time together the past couple of days! More on our mini-vacation in a special 'Lovin' It' tomorrow.

For today, to fill the void of no knitting (or crocheting) to show I have a knitting meme for you by way of Knitnana

Bold for stuff you've done, italics for stuff you plan to do eventually, and normal for stuff you don't intend to do. Let me know if you do the meme, so I can read it!

Afghan (in crochet)
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with bananafiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies...)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items)on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone elses handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously I actually did this on one circular simultaneously, but I don't see that as an option, so I'm adding it here.
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

(Rose) Petal Socks

Details:

Yarn: Julia does it again with another great colorway! Vesper Variegated Sock yarn in Petal (not sure if this colorway is still available)





Pattern: SSS Pattern (August 2006) from Six-Sox Knitalong
Needles: Size 2 Inox 40" circular with the black cable

Techniques: Magic Loop, naturally. Toe-up (increased to 60 stitches, I think, may have been 64. Should have written it down.) , pattern on instep and leg, Abigail's short row heel (still love it!), 2 x 2 ribbing (pattern calls for a picot cuff.)





Start date: Around the first week of April
Finish date: May 10, 2007

For: Me (and I'm keeping them this time!)
Thoughts: Love this yarn! I have two more skeins of Vesper waiting in the wings. You know of my love for Trekking yarn already, and while I'm not abandoning my first love quite yet, I will admit to a bit of two-timing at the moment. The jury is still out, and will be for quite a while due to the rapid approach of summer, on how Vesper holds up with wear. The pattern--great! Makes a nice snug sock, yet has some give. Not sure how much that is due to the yarn. This pattern will eat up more yarn than say a plain stockinette foot and basic ribbing sock, but I still had plenty left over~~even after making the leg 9 inches from the cuff to the end of the pattern on the sole side of the sock.



Other news: still working on the ripple blanket! It's looking great at 9 stripes in! Okay guys, you have to hold me to my goals. I badly want to cast-on another pair of socks, but that is NOT on the list for May. We're heading out on Sunday (Happy Early Mother's Day!) for a 4-5 day mini-vacation. Socks would be PERFECT to take along. But I must resist!

ETA: Bloglines seems to be having some issues today. I posted hours ago, and it still hasn't picked up either of the new posts. Lots of my blogreads have the dreaded red exclamation point next to them. I'll have an avalanche of updates to read tomorrow.

Lovin' It

Another one word summary of my love focus for the week....................

Family

Ripple Me This

First, albeit late, my homage to the ripples that already live in my house. Starting on the left is a baby blanket made by my great-grandmother before I was even married. She lived to be a ripe-old 99 years (3 months shy of her 100th birthday). Everyone in the family received at least one of her afghans. She made baby blankets for my brothers and I to wrap our future babies in. However, my brothers are now in their 40s, with no offspring in sight. I hope that they (or my mother) have hung onto the blankets. I have three children--there are 3 of these blankets in the family--sounds like fate, huh? Anyway, all three of my children have snuggled under that blanket. I'd like to think of my grandchildren doing the same. The second blanket was a wonderful doublebed sized one that Granny made for me when I probably 8 or younger (did you notice that it very closely resembles the colors of my blog. I didn't even notice that at the time I chose the colors). It was always on my bed, and I often cuddled up under it while watching TV on a cold winter's evening. Unfortunately, when I married, I assumed that it had been made of the same stuff as the cream colored one next to it, and threw it in the wash and dryer. Well, it wasn't an acrylic blanket, so I'm sure you've guessed the rest of the story. It is narrow now, and thick, but still pretty long, so I can still wrap up in it on the sofa at night. It was one of the rare blankets she made from wool. As I mentioned, she also made the blanket next to it, the cream. It was a gift for Mr Fix-it and me when we wed. Yes, she lived to see that. I am so very thankful that she was able to be there for our wedding. The last blanket is the first that I made. It was for Math Guy when he was no bigger than The Terror is now. It has now been passed down to the latter who enjoys snuggling under it as much as MG did.

Those are the ripples of my past. Onward to the ripples of the future. All the yarn was in the house by Friday afternoon! Talk about fast service. Wow! These are the colors that made the cut. I'm thinking they will make a very cool blanket for soon-to-be College Dude to wrap up in while he's studying. And a shot of the progress so far~~as of just a few minutes ago. I'm picking the colors pretty much at random. Although I do reserve the right to refuse the color picked if it is too close to the previous one in the line-up. Each stripe is three rows of one color. The blanket will be made up of three 3-row repeats of each color. Each stripe is 1.5 inches deep. There are 17 colors, so the resulting length should be right around 76 inches--perfect for my 6'2" son. Stay tuned for further updates on my ripple obsession.

Mark another May goal off the list!

Swatch and Math Done

Whoo Hooo! Half my yarn arrived just hours after my initial post this morning. I've now crocheted my swatch (check off one of my May to-do items), and I wanted you guys to check my math.

I started with 49 stitches (multiple of 12 + 1) and crocheted 6 rows, not counting the initial chain. My swatch is 13.5 in wide and 3.12 inches deep. So I'm getting 0.28 in per stitch in width and 0.52 inches per row. I took the dimensions of the swatch and multiplied to get sq in= 42.12. Then I frogged all the work, less the chain, and measured~~came up with 35 yds. So, it took 35 yds to get 42.12 sq inches.

Then I did two sets of numbers (I'll just show the figuring I did for the larger set of numbers). For a blanket 60 x 72 I get 4320 sq in. Divide that by 42.12= approx 103. I took that and multiplied by 35 (the number of yds to make the 42.12 sq in) and get 3605 yds. (I ordered 17 skeins of 220 yds each which gives me 3740 yds of yarn.) Then I figured how many yards it would take to get 4 two row stripes from each color.

60 inches wide x 4.16 inches deep= 249.6 sq in
249.6/42.12= approx 5.92
5.92 x 35 yds = need 207 yds per skein.

Each skein is supposed to have 220 yds, so there should be enough to get four 60 inch wide two stripe repeats from each skein.

You guys mind checking my math to see if I'm in the ballpark with this one? I'm cutting it close if I go with the 60 inch wide blanket. I may just work up one whole skein of the yarn to see exactly how many rows I can get out of it.

I don't want to start the actual blanket because all of the yarn isn't here yet, and I want to be able to randomly pull from all of the yarn for each stripe. I don't know how long I'll hold myself to that decision though.

I'm excited to get started, can you tell? ;o)

Tomorrow, an homage to the ripples that already live in my house. One crocheted by yours truly and three by my great-grandmother. They still are busy keeping us warm.

Plans for May

May is already three days old, and I need to make a plan. The next month is pretty busy for us~~wrapping up school, achievement testing of our group of home educated students at church (I have a teaching degree, so I administer the test to one of the groups. Hope to have the middle school kids this year.), private achievement testing for a friend's high schoolers, our last quickie vacation before Math Guy graduates, graduation preparations to make, and.....well, you get the idea. If there were ever a time that I need some relaxing knitting to do, it is now. So, I'm coming up with a plan for the month, just to help me keep my priorities in order (read: not start anything new, other than the blanket, and work on some lanquishing projects.) I'm trusting you guys to hold me to this plan~~accountability can be a great thing.

1. Finish Rose Petal socks (so close)
2. Finish Mystery Monkey Socks
3. Swatch for Math Guy's blanket once yarn arrives Done
4. Start Math Guy's blanket
5. Finish one complete chart of the Hidcote Garden shawl
6. Cast-on sleeves for Cambridge Jacket #2

I'll leave it at that. If I can get those things done, I will be a happy camper.

Edited to add: some of you seem concerned at how much I have planned for this busy month. Notice one item is already done. And when I say cast-on sleeves, I don't mean cast-on and finish. Just cast-on. One complete chart of the Hidcote Garden is like 28 rows or something--not too overwhelming. I expect to get quite a bit of this done while on our vacation in a week and a half. Really the list's purpose is to keep me reined in, so that I don't go starting 3 more pairs of socks before I at least get some of the above finished worked on.

Plans for a blanket

Many moons ago I promised Math Guy that I would make him a blanket to take to school with him in the fall. The Terror has confiscated his old primary color afghan, and it just wasn't the right colors for a man. (My son, a man?!? Yikes! How old does that make me feel? Nevermind. Don't answer that!) I was thinking of knitting him a blanket, but came across the No-End-In-Sight Ripple Along and just knew I had to make him a ripple afghan. Now, don't worry. It's not going to be in any of the bright colors featured so prominently on the blog. I've picked out some nice, sedate, manly colors from WEBS and Yarn Country. I'm using Cascade 220 Superwash because I wanted something really warm and washable for him. I just couldn't stand to think of my baby wrapped up in an acrylic blanket, so wool it is. And I will be going back to my roots with this one and crochet instead of knit it. I learned to crochet long before I learned to knit, which may explain why I knit continental. It feels more like crocheting--similar motions. I've been practicing the stitch since Friday and think I have it down now. It's the Soft Wave pattern from 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns. So, once the yarn arrives, I'm off to the races. I've picked out 17, yes, 17 colors that I hope will blend well together and can't decide whether to use a random stripe generator or go with a repeating color pattern. When the yarn arrives I'll post a photo of the colors.

In knitting news, progress continues on the Petal Socks. I am about 4 inches up the leg now and will continue knitting until I am out of yarn. No more photos of them until they are finished~~which should be this week. Tonight I'm going to pull out the Mystery Monkey Socks and work on those while watching Id*l. I'd like to finish both pairs of socks before the yarn gets here for the blanket as that will consume much of my time for the foreseeable future.

The weather has turned gorgeous here! I think spring has decided to stick around now. I was able to get in another 15 mile ride today. Loved. It. That plus a walk with Mr Fix-it this morning and time on the swing this afternoon make Jenny Raye one happy camper! Not to mention that school is rapidly drawing to a close. Both kids finished up their math this week. French and science (physical science for The Teen and physics for Math Guy) will be the last to wrap-up around the 3rd week of May.

Graduation invitations finally arrived today. That's a load off my mind. Have I mentioned that we are having a graduation for the 6 home educated kids from church? This is the first time we've had more than one home educated student graduate at the same time, so we thought a graduation ceremony complete with diplomas, caps and gowns, and invitations would be appropriate. We were starting to get a bit worried that the invitations would never arrive. I'll be addressing them and getting them in the mail this weekend as graduation is just four weeks (4 weeks, really, is that all?!?!?!) from Saturday. Time is just zooming by!

Speaking of that, gotta run, Mr Fix-it will be home soon! Ta!