Books, Garage Sale, and a Lovely Yarn Shop!

The saga continues regarding my quest to organize my home.  The recipe project is finished (see my previous blog entry for details), and I have moved on to our books.  When I say "our books," I'm not referring to a bookshelf tucked away in a corner somewhere.  Oh, no.  We are a family of avid readers who love the feel of a REAL book in out hands.   We are slowly being smothered by all of our books. So, we finally tackled them, keeping this thought in mind:  "Will I read it within the next five years?  If I have already read it, will I read it again?  Was it a life-altering book or possibly a beloved favorite?"  

It actually worked.  When we were finished, we had six banker's boxes full for a garage sale, and 15 full to list on Amazon.  My plan was to finish this project before my upcoming garage sale.

I am impressed with how organized our bookcases look now!  Can you imagine all of those other books crammed willy-nilly in here too?

So ... the next step is the garage sale, which is this coming Saturday.  As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I have retired from teaching high school reading, and have a lot of classroom supplies, teaching materials, decorations, and hundreds of books to sell.   Adding six more boxes certainly isn't a big deal.  The Amazon listings will take a while, and will probably be my "Fall project."

On to knitting news .....
Well ..........NOTE TO SELF: when purchasing yarn for a child's clothing item, knit the darn thing immediately!!!  Why, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  I don't have enough yarn to complete the sweater I am knitting for my grandson for Christmas.  No big deal, right?  After all, someone on Ravelry will probably have some in their stash, or certainly I should be able to find some online.  With the world at our fingertips, surely this should not be a problem.  

R..i..g..h..t.   

Only one person on Ravelry has the yarn in their stash, and has not responded to my message of over a week ago.  I searched online for HOURS and could not find the color ANYWHERE.  So, I decided that two balls of a contrasting oatmeal color would look very nice for the shawl collar.  I ordered them from LoveKnitting.com, and all was well.  Or so I thought.  Now I have finished knitting the back and half of the front of the sweater, and realize I won't have enough red to complete the sleeves.  Guess what I had to do?  Yep ...order more of the oatmeal color to stripe the sleeves.  

Now ....I admit that my gauge was a TAD off ....one stitch less in 4 inches, but for a child's sweater, a tad bigger is better, right?  I seriously don't think that small difference in gauge on a child's size 6-7 should have made such an enormous difference in the amount of yarn needed.  I will definitely make a note on the pattern in case I ever want to make it again.  I will post a picture when the sweater is finally finished.  

Better knitting news .....I finally made it to Criativity in Largo, Florida.  What a lovely shop! All of the people there, both working and "playing," were extremely nice.  Besides yarnie goodness, the shop also has clothing, accessories, toys, games, soaps, and more.  Worth a visit if you are ever in the area!

I couldn't resist the call of the fibers, and bought a skein of Petite Madison (75% Merino, 15% Cashmere, 10% silk) in colorway Harvest to make the "That Nice Stitch Cowl" on Ravelry.  I think I will leave it as a scarf, rather than kitchener it together at the end. The Purl Bee has an excellent video on the kitchener stitch here.  I plan to take this new project to my daughter's house on my upcoming visit.  

Until next time, HAPPY KNITTING!

My New Journey - a More Organized Home ...and knitting news, of course!

Well, I'm finally getting around to organizing things in my house.  It's amazing how much can be accumulated in 15 years and how cluttered things become with everyone working full-time plus!

With the assistance of my youngest daughter, my kitchen counters and cabinets are now greatly improved.  The main change was in cookbooks, recipes and spices.  At her suggestion, I moved my spices to a different cabinet (something I never thought of doing) and purchased some amazing racks from The Container Store.  Next, I went through every cookbook I owned, and marked any recipes I truly thought I might make in the next year or so.  I am still in the process of writing those recipes on cards for my recipe box.  Yes, I'm still old school; I'd rather pull out a card than fre up the iPad when in the kitchen.  I'm passing the cookbooks on to a friend ...reuse, recycle, etc.!

This was the spice cabinet ...it had a double-decker Lazy Susan in it, but spices were tucked everywhere behind it too.  What a mess it was.  This makes much more sense!

My cookbooks were on my kitchen counter, under this cabinet, taking up a huge corner area, always looking messy.  Now they are in a nicely organized baking cabinet.  My recipe box will fit in front of the cookbooks when I am finished.

And, I am extremely happy with my spice cabinet.  As I use up some of the larger ones, I will replace them with smaller ones that will fit in the racks ...then maybe there will be space in here for my Crockpots!

All of this has reignited my desire to cook, and is the first step on my journy to a neater, more organized home!

In knitting news, I have started my Christmas knitting.  Every year I tell myself I am not going to knit gifts for Christmas, but here I am, doing it again anyway.  In my defense, I have two sweaters for grandchildren who will not fit into them for very long if I wait any longer to make them!  Here is a picture of the first one, a Wrap-Collar Sweater that I'm making in a size 6-7 for my grandson.  The wrap-collar will be in an oatmeal color of the same yarn.

Until next time ...happy organizing and happy knitting!

Recharging, Renewing, and Rediscovering.....

The past two years have been very difficult. Don't get me wrong, there have been many wonderful times as well. Last July we took our adult children on a cruise for our 30th anniversary, and we all had a wonderful time!  

In addition, both of my daughters graduated from college this past May, one week apart .....and the younger one is extremely proud of the fact that she was the first!  

Okay, now for the difficult part ... 
First, Knit 'n Knibble, my LYS (local yarn shop) shut down.  I enjoyed teaching classes and hanging out there for many years.  Actually, they reinvented themselves and now offer mobile lessons, finishing services, ready-to-wear items and other finished goods, and even do commissioned work (Link: Knit 'n Knibble).

Next, I decided to go back to school to reinstate my teaching certificate, which I originally received in 1980.  I had the crazy notion that it would be an honorable career move to teach reading to high school students who desperately needed it. What a struggle that turned out to be .....two years of ninth graders in a Title I school with very little administrative support regarding behavior issues.  How can you create a warm and inviting learning environment where students are engaged in higher order thinking when you are not allowed to take away their phones (it's an addiction - seriously, there should be a 12-step program), isolate them in the classroom, or send them out in the hallway when they are misbehaving?  The phones are a liability issue, the isolation is a "damage their psyche" issue, and the hallway is a safety issue ....in case you are as confused as I was.  To top this off, I even had one student threaten to put me in the hospital.  So, after two years, I am DONE.  Yes, that was bold and in all caps.  

And finally, an estranged family member decided to reconnect with our family (we were able to enjoy a wedding and the birth of another grandchild), but then his determination to stay removed from the family once again caused us much pain.   Enough said, that is dirty laundry that I don't want to air any further on this blog. 

Now,  I am determined to rediscover how to enjoy life.  I am updating and revamping my Etsy shop (stay tuned for new items) and dusting off my blog.

On a final note, I visited my new favorite yarn shop again yesterday with a dear friend.   Four Purls  is located in Winter Haven, Florida and has an amazing selection of yarns and all things "knitterly".  I have been going through knit shop withdrawal for quite a while and yesterday's trip was very satisfying.  The beautiful bag shown below was a gift from my friend and is a RockFlowerPaper original.  The yarns are both from Cascade, the teal is Alpaca Lace, and the gray is Venezia Sport ....they are both destined to become shawls.  The lovely wooden yarn bowl will probably find a home in my new camper (more on the camper in a later post), and the purple needle keeper will prevent my needles from poking out of my fabric bags!

New Year’s Resolutions and a New Mantra

This year I resolve to:

1. Call my mother more often. 
2. Knit at least one pair of infant or preemie socks a month to donate to the hospital. 
3. Get out and walk more for my health. 
4. Finish at least 2 UFOs (unfinished objects) for each new project I start.

***  Exceptions: designing, new classes, and new babies!

When our kids were still living at home, we had a family tradition of sitting down together on New Year’s Day and making our New Year’s Resolutions. Like most other people, we tried very hard to follow them during January, but by March, not so much.

It was a great idea, but unfortunately we always seemed to have very high hopes for ourselves …..many of the resolutions were rarely reasonable. Since the kids have grown and gone their separate ways, my husband Jim and I have not really kept up the tradition. I want to start it up again, at least for myself.

As the years pass, I continue to better understand my priorities, strengths, and shortcomings. I think my 2010 resolution list is one that I will be able to follow long past March. I won’t guarantee that I will be able to make it all the way to the end of December, but past March will be an improvement.

Baby steps. That’s the way to accomplish things. Biting off more that you can chew is a guaranteed path to failure. I wish I had taken that advice from my cheerleading coach in high school. It’s sad, but I don’t even remember her name, but I’ll never forget the conversation she had with me at the end of my Junior year. She told me that I needed to choose between cheerleading and dance/drama. Of course I knew everything then, after all, I was 17! I wasn’t about to let anyone tell me what I could and couldn’t do. No one was going to put limitations on me! Well, she tried. I didn’t make the Varsity Cheerleading Squad in my Senior year, even though I was Co-Captain of the JV Squad. Boy was I mad. I immediately tried out for the Marching Band’s dance team, and became a Rampage. And of course, I was still in the Drama Club, and taking dance lessons 3 nights a week.

So back to my resolutions. We’re only into the second week of January, and I have called my mother a couple of times, I have created a pattern for newborn socks in Sweater Wizard, and have leftover sock yarn ready. I have walked a couple of times, even though the weather is cold ………and, I’ve finished one FO! A sample blanket for an upcoming class I am going to teach at Knit n Knibble in Tampa, FL. It’s my daughter’s design, available on Ravelry …..The Sleepy Owl. 
LINK:   http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sleepy-owl-blanket
  
This is the smallest version (mine)

And here is the largest – the original (Amanda’s):

  

And, since new babies don’t count when starting a new project ……socks for Liam using my leftover Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino from my Red Beret!

So, finally, 35 years after my conversation with the cheerleading coach, I’m much older, and a little wiser, and realize that no matter how much I want to accomplish before I die, it won’t all happen. Hence, my small, doable list of resolutions. Baby steps. That’s my new mantra.

Birth of a Grandson & Fuzzy Socks for His Big Sis!

My daughter Amanda is a stay-at-home mom with a 3-year old daughter named Evelyn, and is married to an Army guy currently deployed to Iraq. Her second baby (a boy) was due on January 12th. My plan was to drive to Georgia with my husband Jim on Monday, Dec. 21st (arriving in the evening) and I would stay with her until the end of January. My husband would of course have to leave after the holidays to return to work.

Since I am writing this blog on January 1st, you probably know where this is going. However, I bet there will be a surprise or two for you in the story.

The saga began on Saturday, December 19th, in Haines City, Florida. My husband and I were spending the evening at my in-laws house for an early Christmas dinner. Mid-way through dinner, we received a phone call from Amanda, indicating that her neighbor had taken her to the hospital because she had been sick all night, and she thought she was going into labor.

Jim made an airline reservation for me to fly out to Columbus, Georgia first thing the next morning. First thing. Really. I had to get up at 3:15 am in order to shower and get to the airport on time. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep at all that night, because there were a lot of things that we had planned to do on Sunday before leaving in the car on Monday morning.

They sent Amanda home from the hospital that night, because after giving her an IV, her contractions stopped. They attributed them to dehydration. So, Sunday around noon, she and Evelyn picked me up from the airport. We stopped on the way home to have lunch, and then decided to stop at the commissary for some groceries. It seemed that it was all a false alarm, but I was glad that I was there “just in case”.

That night, Amanda was up most of the night with back pain. I didn’t even realize that she was up; I slept like a baby myself after not having any sleep the night before. In the morning, she calmly said, “I think we need to go to the hospital now”. So, Amanda called her neighbor to watch Evelyn …..children are not allowed in the hospital because of the H1N1 virus, and I tried to act calm as we had to scrape ice off of the windshield of the car before we could drive to the hospital! Remember, I’m a Florida girl ….ice? What’s up with that?

Amanda insisted that I not drop her off at the door of the hospital; she felt we could park and walk in. It wasn’t an extremely long distance, but it was VERY cold, and, not having ever gone into labor myself (both my deliveries were scheduled c-sections), I really didn’t know what to expect, and since she had been through this before, I decided that she was the expert and my job at this point was to do whatever she wanted. So, we walked in. And then …….we walked, and walked, and walked some more! The maternity triage department was on the opposite side of the hospital, on the 4th floor! Amanda knew this, by the way. Remember, she had been there two days earlier. At this point, I was beginning to think I was in the presence of a super-being.

We get to triage, and they are exremely busy. Amanda is hooked up to a couple of monitors. The baby definitely didn’t like one of them, because he kept kicking it, and the “boom boom” sound echoed through the department at regular intervals. My husband the drummer wuld have been proud. Amanda, on the other hand, was not necessarily appreciating being treated like a bass drum.

After a while, we started to smell smoke. Yes, I said SMOKE. The gas-smelling kind. Then we started to hear bells ….you know, the kind you hear in a department store that usually mean they have spotted a shoplifter? The nurses were scampering around, and looked a tad too busy to answer questions like …”Should we be concerned about a fire or something?”

A little while later, the intercom came on with “Code Red in the kitchen”. I looked at Amanda, and said, “Code Red? That doesn’t sound good”. A few minutes later, the intercom came on again with “Code Red in the dining room”. At this point, I wanted a schematic of the hospital, but I doubted that any of the nurses would accommodate me; they looked entirely too busy.

During all of this, I called my husband, who was already on the road heading toward Columbus. He was pretty surprised when I told him that we were in the hospital, and that she was being admitted. He had pretty much decided that Saturday was a false alarm, and that he would probably not be with us when the baby decided to arrive. Now, however, it was a race against time …he wanted to make it to the hospital before the baby showed up.

Cutting out about 4 hours, where Amanda when to Labor and Delivery, and we both napped a while (epidurals are a wonderful thing) ….Jim showed up about an hour before Liam David Hatcher entered the world!

Back to the smoke …..after Liam was born, we found out that floors 1, 2, and 3 had been evacuated due to a fire in the cafeteria! (Remember, we were on the 4th floor.)

  

Best Christmas present ever!














So, as a result of this adventure, knitting was put on the back-burner for about a week. I can’t remember the last time I went a whole week without knitting! I needed a quick fix, so I decided to cast on a pair of socks for Evelyn; child’s size 8. I had some leftover yarn from designing my Garter Stitch Stocking Gift Card Holder (a free pattern on Ravelry); Regia Softy in color 425, a cream ……it was perfect for the project. I used Sock Wizard to create the pattern, and decided to make sport socks, because I was not sure how much yarn I had left in the skein.

I finished them in 3 or 4 days (with lots of time off to play with the grandkids)! I think she likes them, don’t you?

By the way, did I mention that Amanda knits too? Check out these cute pictures!

Thanksgiving in Hunter’s Haven 2009

Hunter’s Haven is a tiny community just outside of the Ocala National Forest. My family has spent Thanksgiving weekend there for over 40 years. Every year brings a new adventure; at least that’s what we choose to call them ….adventures.

For example, there was the year that my brother’s Ford Bronco was stuck in the dirt, and my brother-in-law had to pull him out with his Toyota Truck. As someone was videotaping them, the Bronco broke free and crashed into the Toyota. This happened about 30 years ago, but we all still talk about it. The Ford versus Toyota battle is the equivalent of the Hatfields and McCoys where my family is concerned. Then there was the year that my brother drove into camp, jumped out of the truck hollering that he “got one”, and everyone came running to see the deer. Much to our surprise, he stopped just outside of camp and tied a dead squirell to the back bumper!

Well ….this year we had quite a few surprises. My daughter Amanda was sitting on my sister’s porch when she looked down and saw an 18 inch orange, yellow and black snake. In the ensuing frenzy, she couldn’t remember her Daddy’s rhyme: “Red on black, you’ll be back; red on yellow, a dangerous fellow”. Really, who would remember that in a panic? She screamed for her dad, and he quickly became our favorite snake-slayer. Yes, it was a coral snake.

Oh! Important note: do not try to take four dogs out of the camper for a walk at the same time ……...especially if two are not used to being on a leash, and one of those two is a Chocolate Lab. Just saying. No, really. I have multiple bruises to prove it. You’d never know they were capable of such behavior from the look of the picture below, right?

But the best story from this year involves a late night, dog food, and garbage. Campers should know better, but, ……….well ………we were a little distracted after the coral snake and the “not-so-graceful” fall out of the camper. Let’s set the mood ……

It was a dark and stormy night …. (just kidding). It was a pleasant night. We had the windows open; after all, Thanksgiving in Florida usually isn’t cold. Amanda was sleeping under the front window in the bed converted from the table. She had her two dogs with her ….the Lab, and a Jack Russell Longhaired Terrier. My granddaughter Evelyn was asleep in the bunk in the back. My husband and I were asleep in the bedroom at the front of the camper with our two dogs, a poodle and a Chi-Doxie (or Doxie-Huahua as my husband has dubbed him). It was a peaceful night, or so we thought.

When we got up the next morning, our trash was strewn all over the yard and down the road. And ….the un-opened dog food bag that was on the picnic table was gone. A bear had come through camp, and our dogs did not make a sound! Here’s my thoughts on how it went down:

Cast of Characters:
Mr. Bear – the Black Bear
Bryant – the Chocolate Lab
Molly – the Jack Russell Terrier
Yvette – the Poodle
Chico – the Chi-Doxie

[Mr. Bear approaches the camper.]
Bryant: “Hey guys! Do you smell what I smell?”
Other dogs (in unison): “OMG! Yes!”
Bryant: “DON’T SAY A WORD! If you do, I will deal with you later, understand?”
Chico: “Why do you always think you are in charge? This is MY camper!”
Bryant: “I have teeth bigger than you. SHUT UP!”
Other dogs (in unison): whimper

[Mr. Bear grabs the garbage, digs through it, throwing stuff everywhere. Disgusted because he didn’t find much to eat, he turns to leave. All of a sudden, he sees the bag of dog food. His eyes open wide, he starts to drool a little out of the left corner of his mouth. He looks around to make sure his other bear friends are busy near other campers. He hops up on his hind legs, and like Fred Flinstone at the bowling alley, he tippy-tippy-toes to the bag, grabs it and runs like the wind!]

Bryant: “He’s gone. This NEVER HAPPENED. If anyone asks us about it in the morning, just act like those penguins in ‘Madigascar’ ….you, know …..just smile and wag guys, just smile and wag”.
Other dogs (in unison): nod emphatically

[Ten minutes later….back at home, Mr. Bear is leaning against his favorite tree. The bag of dog food is in the crook of his arm, opened. Slowly, he reaches into the bag, pulls out a morsel and throws it into the air. He catches it in his mouth, slowly turns his head, smiles and sticks out his tongue.]

I bet later he laughed about it with his friends.