Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend - that means family camping trip. I keep telling myself, "I love camping, ah, the great outdoors". Is it all worth it?

A week before the trip, I start packing. Two of our nice LL Bean sleeping bags were ruined this past winter when a bottle of bleach leaked, ate through a shelf and dripped onto them. The bleach ate through the bags, through the zippers and destroyed them. Ok, so that's $150 to replace....mere headache. I did 200 loads of wash, washed up the camp knives, forks and cooking stuff. Oh, did I mention my dishwasher picked this week to die? Well, it did. I replaced it and the new one is coming on June 4. Until then, we eat on paper plates. I simply refuse to do dishes. Then came a full day of packing, shopping for food, exhaustion and trying to get out of here by Friday afternoon. Around 2pm or so on Friday, I noticed that the windshield cracked. Sigh.... The Glass Man said to leave it alone and take it camping and we'll fix it on Monday. Then, we're all ready to leave and hubby, who was expecting a 3pm dismissal found out that he had to work until 5. Ho hum. 5 turned into 6:30 because of overtime and an unexpected trip to another branch of the bank. Now we're up to bad headache and the kids are itching to leave. He gets home and we can't find the adaptor to the gas grill. We can go camping but we can't cook. Trip to Sports Authority only to learn that he has the right parts. It's now 7:30pm. Van gets packed up. Not sure I could make it 130 miles away before 11PM. We tell the kids we're leaving in the morning. They cry. Headache intensifies, I fall asleep. I get up at 5, rouse the kids, head upstate.

At this place, electric and water are shared between sites. The people next to us were very nice but must've not ever gone camping before. Who sets their tent up practically on top of the water?

If you look closely, you can see the front of that box is the electricity and the back is the spigot, the rock is all wet as is the bottom of their tent. Their table was located where my screen room is (the right of the picture). They set up all the way at the edge of their site and I felt a bit squished. Actually, initially, they were in my site. I had them move their table to give me access to the water and electricity. They weren't too happy but understood. They had miles and miles between their tent and the tent on the other side. Ok, fine......I guess. I could hear someone snoring and it had to be them.

The weather cooperated, it was sunny and in the mid-70s which meant the first swim of the year in the heated spray pool and in the frigid built in pool. Kids do not care. They're happy as long as there is a playground, a pool and a tent. They love to see Yogi and Cindy, too.

Seeing my babies glow and my DH interacting with them, quality family time, that's what it's all about. It's worth it to spend 18 hrs packing and unpacking for these Kodak Moments........right?

Here's my dear hubby and baby girl. That's our tent in the background.

Being it's the unofficial beginning of summer, it is time to start working on a pair of socks. Here we have a pair for DH, in man boring black, Knitpicks Essentials, size 2.25mm, 64 sts casted on, pattern is Seeded Ribbing. Let's see how dark my thigh gets by Labor Day weekend.

I leave you with this pretty picture as I head over to Ravelry to see if I can do a Summer of Socks KAL or something!

More Spinning or "What am I gonna do with this yarn?"

Ok, time to oogle!

So, I've been practicing spinning out of some gifted mystery fiber. It's probably BFL although we can't be sure because it wasn't labelled. It foofs up when it's underspun and BFL does that so I'm guessing that that is what it is.

I'm having less trouble with the wheel since the last guild meeting. When I was plying up the undyed Corriedale, I needed Lance Armstrong thigh strength when the bobbin was getting full. I have learned more about proper tension and I'm getting much better at spinning evenly. I was able to make these two skeins of lemon lime somewhat heavy worsted weight (I didn't check the WPI yet) yarn.

The bottom one isn't as nice as the first one but it's still very good. They're both spun much more evenly than anything else I've done prior to this and the twist will set much better when they've had their bath. I also made some autumn/pumpkin colored yarn in a light bulky weight that I didn't show you yet but I had some left over.

I also had a bit lemon lime left over on one bobbin so I decided to ply them together. This isn't at all beautiful; however, it was a lesson for me. I could easily see how the yarn was twisting together and work on my plying skills. This was only a few yards, a sample for me. Then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's a strange color combo.

Maybe one more skein out of mystery fiber and I'll be ready to tackle some of the nicer stuff I bought....like these:

That's BFL for the Evergreen Grove (I bought two of the Evergreen Grove) and Mixed berry Rambouillet. The lovely one on the bottom was irresistible to me. It's merino and it is lovely! I am saving that one. This give me a chance to try different fibers. By the time I spin and use what I have, I'll be ready to tackle that one and it'll be fall. Gorgeous. I actually love all of them. Not shown is 8oz of solid Louet Corriedale. I will show you that next time along with my current knitting projects which aren't going anywhere because all I do is spin and do exercise on the wii fit nowadays. Also, not shown is two skeins of autumn colored mystery fiber that is the color of the one in the mixed skein above. It's very pretty!

Now, in other news, remember that pair of Seeded Ribbing socks I made for my little boy? Well, I got an e-mail on Ravelry that they'd like to use my picture for the pattern page! I didn't get 'top booking' but if you ravel Charlene's Seeded Ribbing socks, you'll see my socks! On my little boy's feet! I made them! (Both, the feet and the socks.) I was ... honored! So, if you're looking for me and want my autograph or something, I'll be the one in the Jackie-O sunglasses and poofy scarf at Rhinebeck 2009. I'll also be carrying around 30lbs of fiber like some people I saw this year. It'll be really fun to go to Rhinebeck as a spinner. Only 10 more months!

Catching Up...

It's been a rough week. Kids are getting ready to go back to school, parents are ready to rejoice. Only a few more days, hang in there. It seems that at the end of the summer, they go a little crazy. Summer vacations are usually done, camp is done, days are getting shorter, fall is in the air. They're itching for something new. It's an ugly, rainy Saturday morning today. Husband went all the way out to Montauk to play a Wedding Ceremony at 1PM. In order to make it there on time, he left the house at 6:30AM. Holiday weekend, gotta pass the Hamptons, one road...could take a few extra hours. I miss him already. I need him to help me with my kiddies who have the End of Summer Crazies. Don't believe me, do you? Read on.......

This week, I telecommuted on Thursday. I got up extra early so that I could do mommy things before work. I planned on making meatballs and sauce at 5AM. So, at 5AM, I got up and went downstairs. I heard the pitter patter of little sneakers....I went into my sunroom to see my son.

"Hello, Mommy. I got up at 4:48 o'clock today. I made this".

He is very proud of his art. So, I let him play with it and proceeded to make sauce and do laundry before I had to start working. See those meatballs floating around in there? I dumped them in the pot, raw. It adds fat to the sauce and makes it extra delicious, of course. It also saves time, no frying or baking. The disadvantage is they tend to fall apart which is ok because then we just have meat sauce. I think next time I will lightly brown them in a hot oven on my Pampered Chef bar pan. Sauce was perfect. Kids and husband gobbled up almost all the meat. I stole two meatballs when no one was looking.

After making the pot of sauce, two loads of wash, running the dishwasher, I worked. At lunchtime, I stopped. I had to make him one of his favorite sandwiches. It had to be cottage cheese on white bread, not toasted and cut exactly the way he likes it. Surrounded by cherries to make it visually appealing. Surrounded by cherries so he could save the pits and plant them in the backyard so we can have a Cherry Orchard.

Can you cut a sandwich like that? Who said girls are harder than boys? She eats whatever is put in front of her. This applies even if it happens to be in someone else's bowl.

DS & DD,Sharing a bowl of Rice Crispies. Noticed they used a divided bowl, don't want to get each others "COOTIES".

By nightfall, they were tired. Work was done and it was time to knit the socks. I got up to the heel flap and I crashed. (Remember, I always tell you, never knit when you're too tired! I do not take my own advice often enough and this is what happens.)


These are for my DS, who has little boy feet, size 12 shoes. I will make them a little longish and hopefully he can wear them 2-3 years, we'll see. I guess that depends on how he grows. I wanted to use the regular slip stitch heel flap but I didn't. I put in stockinette stitch, forgetting to slip. Dopey. Also, pattern has an odd number of sts in the heel, which I DETEST because I can't think that way. 48 sts around, 24 each sole and instep. Bada-bing (I'm keeping with the Italian flair to this post, have you noticed?) and you're done. No dice. I ripped it out. I also had to be a smart ass and knit them both at the same time and I turned in the wrong place. I ripped it out. Then, I noticed that a stitch that was supposed to be a purl was a knit. It was about half way down the sock. In fact, there were two of them that were wrong. Very, noticeable. You probably can't see it here but I can. I put the sock to bed Thursday night and scheduled its surgery for 5AM Friday morning.



Friday morning, I prepped the socks. (one stitch each sock was wrong...) I put one sock on a holder and worked on the other. "Crochet Hook", I said to the nurse, my trusty dog, Zoey, and I proceeded. I dropped the stitch back eight million rows and fixed it. Second sock, at 5:25, alot faster. Probably because I had my coffee. DS stayed in his bed a little later, thankfully. DH got up early to help me handle the kiddies, thankfully. Sock was fixed.

The crazies continued during the day when the little Punkins called 800 numbers to buy stuff off the television. You know, stuff they need, Rainbow brushes, Oreck Vacuum cleaners, that chamois wipey thing that the "Germans make", Hank Williams classic CD Collection and Sledge-o-Matic. Thankfully, DH was able to nip this in the bud.

Friday night, socks were together at last on one needle. I clipped them together with a holder, a guaranteed prevention of turning in the wrong place. I knit the heel flaps, turned heel on sock one and turned heel on sock two. I actually knit them together on a single needle all through the gusset decreases and no errors. YAY. Don't ask me how I did this. I know how to do it but I haven't figured out how to explain it. You need to have a spare DPN or two and it's not really hard once you think about it. Just remember, you have to knit all of the soles and then all of the insteps. If the sts are in the wrong place, slip them to the DPN. Keep slipping them and knitting them on and off in order and voila, at the end of a row (or two, if you miss the first time) everything will be lined up. This took me three attempts when I first did it and now it's cake. I will attempt to document it and photograph it someday.


Finally, this morning's knitting session, which began at 6AM (I let myself sleep in a bit because it's Saturday) went swimingly. I know this is a really cruddy picture but I'm well on the way to completion now. I'm past the halfway point of the foot and should have nice FO pix within a day.

Ah, Saturday. We didn't have eye candy yesterday but I have a feeling we will have a nice sky picture for tonight....hopefully a good one. The end of a rough week.

We'll be saying goodbye to summer tomorrow and I hope to have some nice pictures to help us all remember it. This way, we can look back in January and say, "look at that nice rainy weather".

Stay tuned, I can't wait to tell you and show you my new trinkets. I am going to work on a special project next and guess what? It's not a sock!

Seeded Rib Socks..

Yes, another pair of socks is on the needles. I can't have my son feeling left out so I started these during the closing ceremonies of the Olympics on Sunday night. Start date is 8/24/08. I worked on them after I took this picture and I am nearly up to the heel flap. Maybe tonight I'll do that and take another shot!

My fall project is going to be a nice bulky tweed pullover from Knitting for Him. He has picked out "Shawl Collar Sweater" - ravel it here. Only a few projects in Ravelry so far so we'll see. It seems that it knits up with alot of ease and I'm considering making it out of Cascade 128 Chunky Tweed, the same yarn that I used for my Hooded Danbury Coat. My coat is also quite large (and STILL not blocked) so I'm going to carefully swatch out of the leftovers from that and calculate what we'll need. The yarn calls for even bulkier yarn but I can't afford the Rowan and I was thrilled with the Cascade so I'll use that.

Gotta walk just 1 mile this morning while reading Farmer Boy. I am re-reading the Laura Ingalls books as I walk across the country in my quest to be fit and literate. I read these back in grade school and they're great for treadmill walking, large print and easy words. One chapter is usually 20 minutes and it's perfect. I am not enjoying this one as much as the others, very descriptive. I don't remember reading this back in the day, it's the one about her husband's boyhood. It wasn't available on the bookmobile so I skipped over it when I went through the series.

Treadmill time!