Family, Knitting

And They Said It Wouldn’t Last

Posted on by Jean

Today Dan and I spend another anniversary apart.  It’s our 14th.  He asked me to marry him only a week after dating and I said yes.  This is the first photo ever taken of us together.  We were engaged for about a week and had gone up to my visit my family in NH and my Aunt took this snapshot.  We were in an Army school together at Ft. Devens (closed now, but it was about an hour west of Boston).  We got married by a JP in Annapolis, Md. almost exactly two months after we met with just a couple of witnesses.  We just knew.   Everyone else thought we were nuts (except our families – they seemed to know it would work).  Like a lot of military couples we had two weddings.  The JP one was to get the paperwork rolling so we could be stationed together (I was at NSA in Maryland and he was in San Antonio).   It only took the Army about two months to get the paperwork through and I moved to San Antonio on Thanksgiving weekend.  The picture below left is us after the JP marriage on the courthouse steps and the one below right is a photo from the big church wedding that we had for family almost a year later at the Ft. Sam Houston chapel in San Antonio.  No laughing at the poodle-do please.   Even Oprah had bad do’s and she had someone doing her hair.

I think I picked the right guy.  Even from Afghanistan, he has managed to do well in the gift department:

The Celtic Knot arrived for my birthday back in May and the Midnight Sky one arrived yesterday.  They’re getting to know him very well at Golding Fiber Tools!  Let me tell you… these babies spin FOREVER!  Beautiful to look at and so nice to work with.  The fiber is some that I hand dyed last year.

Last but not least, I have done some knitting during my hiatus.   A bunch of us on the Elann chat site had a knit-a-long for the Bed and Breakfast sweater from 2003 Winter issue of Interweave.  I have most of the back done and most of the front.  I cheated and just did the rib pattern on the back.  It wasn’t laziness … I swear…. it wasn’t…. it was simply a matter of comfort.   I thought it’d be weird on my back with those cables.  You  call it a weak excuse but I call it practicality.  The color is a darker green.  Not so grey as it came out in the photo.

Dan’s uncle was released from the hospital today for three months of rest at home!  Yeah!  Thank you for all your well wishes and prayers.

Animals and Nature, Sewing, Shetland, Travel

This and That

Posted on by Jean

How about a little of both sewing and knitting today?  Not that I knit anything but I still have lots of knitterly pictures to share from Shetland.  I kind of feel like that person that you go to visit and they pull out all their vacation photos and make you sit there looking at them for hours.  At least here you can just scroll by if you want to and I’d never know it.  🙂

Back to Shetland….What we thought was wool all stuck to the grass was actually a common plant in Scotland called “Cotton Grass”.  We didn’t realize it wasn’t wool until we saw a bookmark with a photo of it.  I took the picture above with full intentions of posting all about the wool everywhere:

There actually was quite a bit of wool all over.  There was quite a bit of something else the sheep left everywhere that Daniel had a very hard time not gagging over. lol  Sheep poop everywhere was not easy on him.  Nothing like ruining a perfectly beautiful photo by talking about poop, huh?  You’re welcome.

Vest outside of the “Croft House” at the Isleburgh Exhibit:

Sheep on Fair Isle near the Bird Observatory:

Everyone is friendly in Shetland.  Shetland Pony saying howdy near Eshaness.

Hap shawls at the Crofthouse Museum:

I did more sewing last night and today.  Joseph’s kindergarten teacher moved away while he was in 1st grade and had a baby last year. I promised a quilt.  You know my motto:  Better late than never.  Perfect timing for the first birthday actually!  I finally finished it today.  Yeah!  The kit came from one of my favorite quilting sources who happens to be in cahoots with one of my favorite knitting sources.  You guessed it… Connecting Threads and Knit Picks.  See… my knitting sort of lead to my quilting.  That counts for something doesn’t it?  The kit was called Daisies, Ducks and Dogs. 

Family, Sewing

Turning Five In Style

Posted on by Jean

Just got an update on Dan’s uncle.   Looks like he’s going to be okay.  He’s breathing on his own and actually joking.  A couple of weeks in the hospital and two months of downtime at home with lots of loving care from his wife and he’ll be almost good as new.  Thank God.  Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes.

More Shetland pictures to follow. Just didn’t want everyone to think I’d lost all my creativity and would just be showing pictures from our trip forever.

I have a confession to make. I haven’t been knitting much this Summer.  There.  I said it.  I have been sewing though.  I decided that I don’t care how it looks and set up a little sewing corner in my dining room so I could get to sewing and finally put my machine to work.  There’s absolutely no place else in the house with enough light and space to do it.  There’s a huge walk-in closet (unusual in Germany) upstairs but it’s dark and full of wool.  With Dan gone we don’t entertain now, so who cares what it looks like.

Having to pull everything out and put it back again when I feel like sewing something really puts a hamper on my creativity. I have this awesome machine and I use it so little that I have to reinvent the wheel whenever I take it out because I can’t remember how to do the gazillions of cool things it can do.  So when I’m actually sewing, the dining room table is covered but it’s easier to clean up by just putting stuff neatly in this little corner than to haul everything up and down the stairs and I find I’m sewing more now.  Which I like.

A neighbor girl (her dad also works in Dan’s office) is turning five tomorrow.  I have all boys.  It’s a treat when I get to make something for a girl.  I went all out girlie-girl because once-upon-a-time in a far away land I was a very girlie girl and I miss it.  With some inspiration from Autum (Creative Little Daisy) and the Amy Butler “In Town” pattern, this is what I came up with for her gift:

I used the main purse fabric for the pocket on the back side of the little zipper bag (which I used this pattern for).  Yes, I messed up and somehow ended up with the pocket on the back instead of the front.  Worked out though because I also cut it wrong and if I’d put it on the front the pocket would have covered the zipper.  So when I screw up it’s kinda like a double negative. lol.  It erases itself and no one would ever know…. except you.

I bought a handmade tissue pouch at the local fabric store and tore it apart to see how it went together.  There are plenty of tutorials on the web so don’t ask me why I didn’t just go the easy route.  The edging in red was also an accident because I had to use the scraps as I could. Just turned out that way.   I was using a set of fat quarters and didn’t want to cut into another set just to make a little tissue pouch.  Really funny because the fat quarter pack is called Serendipity.  Guess it’s true to it’s name.

I was so excited about it that yesterday I told the birthday girl that I couldn’t wait until she saw what I made for her.  She said, “I hope it’s not a baby present!”  LOL. I assured her that it was very much five-year old style, in fact,  people would probably think she’s six!  She was very happy to hear it.  You’d think she was 36 the way she talks.  It’s hilarious.  The ensemble will go very well with her beautiful red hair.  I also put a little tube of kids hand creme I found in the German apothecary (the tube is the perfect shade of orange) and a tube of cherry flavored lip balm (also German) that matches the red in the bag.  And it’s bad luck to give a wallet without money it it so there’s a $1 bill in the pouch.  I hope to hear squeals of delight this afternoon.

Knitting, Shetland, Spinning

Woolen Souvenirs

Posted on by Jean

Wendy (Catknits) asked about yarn purchases in Shetland.  I know I was just talking about how I had way too much stash but I went to Shetland and you know what that means, right?  No one would really expect me to go to *Shetland* and not buy wool or yarn, right?  Seriously.  That would just be cruel.  Forget that I still have loads of yarn left from our first trip there in ’97.

At the shop in the Jamieson’s Mill, I couldn’t resist this tam.  I’ll never wear it (I look like a dork in hats – especially tams) but I loved the colors and just couldn’t leave it.  It’s machine knit but it was less than $20.  Here are shots of the front, back and up close and personal:

We went to the Isleburgh Community Center where they have an exhibit each Summer.  It’s so much fun to watch the ladies knit.  You have never seen fingers fly so fast.  Intricate lace or fair isle patterns…. their fingers are a blur.

I bought these handknit fingerless gloves for a mere $9.

I bought a kit for the Firs and Flakes Shawl and a kit for Dan, the Noss Jumper in blues.  We saw a sample knit up and it’s gorgeous.  Back at the B&B the next day I got to talking about knitting with another woman staying there.  She informed me that I could buy a fleece at J&S also!!  Back we went the next day.  I picked out a gorgeous gray one.  When she totaled it up at four pounds (about $8) you know what happened next.  Even Dan said, “Go get another one!”  Told you.  He’s a good man.  Here’s the gray one washed:

And the white one unwashed:

It’s in the washer right now, soaking.  I had to skirt this one a bit more.  Pretty gross on the back end.  I had thought that I would process these completely by hand, but they’re pretty full of dirt and grass.  I think I’ll just wait until we get to NY and take them to get processed.   I have two others that I had no business buying this past spring that are still in the boxes they came in.  How long can I leave them like that?  Can it wait until next summer when we get back to the States?  I should just bite the bullet and scour them.  They’re both covered fleeces so it wouldn’t take much to clean them.  But I digress….

Then at Jamieson’s shop on Commercial street I bought some beautiful denim colored yarn for another shawl.  It’s bluer than in the photo.  What’s with blues and purples anyway?  They never come out in pictures quite right. Anyway, it’s way thicker than what I needed (insert hand backwards on forhead and martyr voice)…but I’ll make it work.  I thought the yarn in the kit for the shawl was thicker and it was back at the B&B but who cares, right?  It’s wool so it’s all good.

Family, Knitting, Shetland, Travel

All About Fair Isle

Posted on by Jean

How long do you think I can milk these photos for? lol

Obviously, the highlight of our Shetland trip was our visit to Fair Isle.  I knew the plane would be small, but holy cow!  Where’s it’s mother?  When you have to flip the seat up, like getting into the back of a car… well…. I’m just sayin’… it was small.

I could reach out and tap the pilot, John (who was very friendly…  very young, but friendly), on the shoulder… and I was in the 2nd seat. I was just glad Joe didn’t keep asking, “Are we there yet?” like he usually does.  It would have caused John great angst and we couldn’t have that.  To tell you the truth, we didn’t talk much because you couldn’t hear over the engine anyway.  For the first time in my life I was nervous in a plane.  I love to fly.  In real planes.

I forgot all about it the second we landed though.  As I was getting off the plane a woman approached me, “Jean?” I assumed it was Florrie, the woman we were renting a car from (the island is small and walk-able but with two kids and unpredictable weather we wanted to be sure to see the whole island and have shelter from rain).  Nope.  It was a Kathy Coull whom I’d met online through the group that I went to Mull with a couple of years ago.  I hadn’t emailed with her in months.  She handed me a map of the island (don’t laugh – it actually came in handy for the two roads) and invited us to lunch!  She’d spoken with Liz Lovick (one of the Mull group) in Orkney the day before and Liz had reminded her that we were coming in.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  She put out a very nice spread of breads, cheeses and tomato soup which was perfect for a misty, windy day.  If you get the chance to go to Fair Isle, she does run the only B&B on the island so if you google her name and Fair Isle you can contact her.  She’d just moved into the house she’s in now from another one on the island.  There were a couple of nice young men staying at her B&B who had lunch with us.  They were doing research on the social aspects of living in such a small community.  I’d love to read the paper when it’s finished. The boys fell in love with Kathy’s dog.  Another picture I forgot to take.  I need to send her a thank you gift for her kindness.

I love this little photo from the war.  It’s was meant to show how the soldiers built relationships with the islanders.  Sappy, but cute.  For such a tiny place, it actually saw a bit of action.  The South Lighthouse was actually bombed a couple of times in WWII. You can read about it here.

What I can’t seem to get my head around is that this teensy little speck in the sea is known the world over for it’s knitting of all things.  It’s incredible.  They have a little museum that was open during the afternoon we were there.  If you click on the thumbnail of the knitting display, you’ll get a bigger view.

If you look up in the right-hand corner of the museum photo and squint really hard, you can see a long knitted sampler.  I’m a dork.  I forgot to take a picture of it.  I didn’t even get it in the video.  But you can stop squinting.  I tried cropping down to it from the museum picture for you:

You can also see part of a sign off of one of the older Good Shepherds. That’s the boat that brings mail and supplies to the island from Shetland.  We thought about going this way instead of the plane but we heard it’s a very rough ride and it’s longer.  We didn’t have the time this trip.  I’d like to try it next time though and actually stay on Fair Isle for at least a week.

Here are more croppings from that museum photo:

I forgot one of the sheep pictures in the last post.  We always try to hit Science Centers in cities we visit because the boys love them.  This special sheep was at the Science Center in Aberdeen.  You push a button and watch as the sheep eats some hay and then it either poops or pees.   Sometimes you get lucky and it does both! 🙂  You could hear people yell, “Jackpot!” when that happened.  Okay.  I’m lying.  Would have been funny though.

Animals and Nature, Family, Shetland, Travel

Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk

Posted on by Jean

Some of you may read tea leaves or tarot cards but in our house we read milk spills.  Okay… that’d be ridiculous but….  one morning a few months ago I poured the boys’ cereal.  When I was putting the milk back in the fridge Joseph got all excited saying we had our own lamb.  ????  I turned around and saw what he was talking about.  Turns out that I spill milk in shapes.  You be the judge:

In keeping with the theme here are some of the gazillion many sheep pics I took in in Shetland:

This shot was taken on Fair Isle.  That’s one of the two little churches.  They are really close to each other and apparently the islanders use both.

I watched a dog for some friends at church this past weekend.  Her name is Charley, she’s old, very sweet but she does not like Aggie very much.  Charley doesn’t get that the young whipper snapper just wants to play… really bad.  And Aggie doesn’t get why the old woman snaps at her whenever she tries to get to know her better.  I think they finally came to an agreement though because I found them somewhat close together for the first time in three days:

Aggie has that innocent “What?” look on her face and Charley just wishes she’d go away.

The Tooth Fairy visited our house Sunday night.  We took this picture for Dan because the tooth was quite the topic most of the time he was home for R&R. 

At bedtime it went something like this:

Joe:  Mom… do you put the money under my pillow?

Me:  WHAT?! Who told you *that*?  I wouldn’t say that too loud, you’ll offend the Tooth Fairy.

Joe:  Okay.  I was just asking.

Santa, Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny all exist in our house until the day I’m pushin’ up daisies.  If you don’t believe, you don’t receive.  Daniel’s known for quite a while but he won’t admit it.  Not to me anyway.  I think he thinks I actually believe or he’s just smart enough to not want to ruin my fun.  I’m pretty sure he’s had a talk with Joe, “Mom still believes in them so don’t tell her”.

So the Tooth Fairy must have heard Joe because she left him a note telling him how great the tooth looked and how if he brushed really well, he’d get more money because the better the teeth look, the more she pays.  Yeesh.   She never left me a note.  Joe is one lucky kid.  He’s also easily bought off so I’m hoping the promise of extra cash will get him to brush better.

Family, Knitting, Shetland, Travel, Weaving

Wooly Paradise

Posted on by Jean

One of my favorite things from both of our trips to Shetland was the Jamieson’s Spinning Mill in Sandness on the West side of the main island.  You can just walk around and watch the tons and tons of wool become yarn,

sweaters:

and woven fabric:

I love how cleverly they can weave several different color ways on one warp.  This is only three of the several color ways of scarves that were on this particular loom.  They just slightly felt the fabric and then cut along the yellow lines in strips and then cut the strips into scarves.  Amazing how the weft works through all the warp colors.  They had bolts of warps ready to go onto the looms.  I was sad that the weaver(s) weren’t there when we visited.  I did get to watch the women doing the joining on the knitwear though.  Very cool.

The staff are very kind and don’t seem to mind visitors.  Even small, curious boys who make the knitting machines stop by accident.  :-O 

When we went there in ’97 Daniel was only three but he loved it and cried when it was time to go.  On this visit we gave the boys their choice of where to go on the last day.  Even though we’d spent about three hours at the mill the day before, that’s where they chose to go back to.  The staff greeted us with smiles and ran the boys around showing them different things that we’d missed… somehow… the day before.

Well, tonight’s the big night.   First school night of the year.  Good thing next weekend is already a long one.   I think we’ll need it.  Both boys are really excited.  I’m actually not ready yet.  The last month has been a blur so it kind of snuck up on me.   

Family, Shetland, Travel

It’s All Downhill From Here

Posted on by Jean
Dan and the boys meeting a Fair Isle resident

We made it through the halfway point of the deployment!  The rough patch is behind us and everything is looking up now.  The boys and I took Dan back to the airport on Wednesday morning for his flight back to Afghanistan.  There were lots of tears but we’re back to “normal” deployment routine and ready for the next five months or so to fly by.  This picture was taken last week on Fair Isle.  One of the local dogs greeted us as we walked North from the South Lighthouse. 

School starts on Monday.  Joe starts soccer practice the same day and Daniel starts Tae Kwon Do in a month.  It’ll start looking like Fall in a couple of weeks, the Holidays will soon be upon us and before you know it, Dan will be home again.

The new Agent taking Dan’s place here at the office has finally arrived.  He and Dan were in Warrant Officer school together and have been good friends since.  I met his wife at their graduation but didn’t really remember her.  She’s terrific.  So are their three boys who are all around Daniel and Joe’s ages.  Their oldest and Daniel will be in class together.  Yes, things are definitely looking up.  I’m in much better spirits than I was a few months ago when I had the wind knocked out of me and my self confidence took a nose dive. Dan sat me down when he got home and made me remember who I am.  He tried over the phone but it was a lot different and much more convincing with his arms around me.  No wonder I like that guy.  😉

Dan came home five days after the family left.  He was a day late because he got held up in Kuwait but they extended his leave by a day so that was okay.  He was home for a few days before we left for Shetland.   What a great trip that was.  I’ll share pictures bit by bit.  I took about 300 of them so it’s going to be tough choosing.  Fair Isle was magical.  We just flew in for the day on an itty bitty eight-seater plane.  You could see the whole island as we approached the tiny little runway.  I’ll fill you in on everything as I share the pictures.  Here are a few to keep you in suspense for a couple of days:

The boys and I on Fair Isle
Fair Isle as we flew in.  The big white spot on the tip closest to us is the North Lighthouse
Here you can see the houses on the southern part of the island, the South Lighthouse and the big rock in the foreground is Sheep Rock
Family, Knitting

And the Basket Goes To….

Posted on by Jean

The winner of the drawing for the Preemie Project basket goes to…. drumroll please…. Li from Life’s a Stitch!  Congrats Li.  E me your address and I’ll get the basket off to you.

Thanks to everyone for participating and keep those little knitties going to Laura (Knits for Sanity).  It’s a great cause.

It was a long week here.  I caught some nasty stomach bug that’s going around our community and was down for the count Monday.   It came on strong and fast, but it was over pretty quick too.   I was pretty much back to normal by Tuesday afternoon.  Did some volunteering at the school and just kept busy in general.

I finished the baby sweater that was giving me hell a challenge and it’s ready for it’s little recipient who’s due at the end of this month.  I will never do another textured knit back and forth again unless the back side is just knit or purl.  Whew.  I think I got into the rhythm of it just as I was finishing the 2nd sleeve.

Here’s a little sky shot for Sandy (Sandy’s Knitting).   Dan sent it all the way from Afghanistan.  Okay… so it came by email but still… pretty, no?

Family, Knitting

We Interrupt This Blog Break…

Posted on by Jean

We interrupt this blog break with some actual knitting content.  I know.  You’re shocked. 

Note the title of the book:

Baby Knits For Beginners  Key word: “beginners” 

See the simple little diamond knit/purl pattern?  Okay.  I’ve knit several projects from this book with success and I consider myself a fairly accomplished knitter.  I’ve been knitting for 20 years (since my first birthday).  If this book is for beginners, why then, am I having such a *((*&&%#$*#* time with this little bitty baby sweater?!  I’ll tell you why.  It’s because it’s knit flat.  I am an Elizabeth Zimmermann baby… okay not really, I wish though, but you know what I mean….  I’m all about knitting in the round.  I usually even change patterns just so that I can knit them in the round.  But I looked at this tiny thing and thought, “Heh.  No problem. Simple little knit/purl texture.”  Yeah.  Right.  You can’t tell where the heck you are when you’re on the back without constantly flipping to the front and thinking opposite (I have a hard enough time with regular thinking).  And then I got to the armholes.  Threw me WAY out of whack.

So I was supposed to have this finished for a baby shower this afternoon.   I thought I could finish it during the shower and be all smooth and hold it up at the end of the shower with a big ‘ol, “Voilà!”  Not. I have had to rip out, frog, what have you, more times than I’m willing to admit.  I could have knit three sweaters of this size in the round in this amount of time.  If I ever finish it, I’ll post a picture.  Oh, c’mon… have a little faith.   You know I’ll finish it.  The baby is due in a month.  I have PLENTY of time!

Okay…. another thing plaguing me this week (besides the obvious absence of my husband)….  I’m missing my Preemie Projects and my beloved ebony double-points. They were my favorites. Seriously, it’s driving me nuts.  I woke up at 4am on Friday morning because I’ve been looking for them all week. I could swear I put them in a bag to take on the road somewhere so I could knit while Dan drove but I can’t find them anywhere.  I’ve had those beautiful needles for probably six years. I’m half expecting hoping Dan to say he found it in his stuff in Afghanistan. 

It’s been a weird week getting used to Dan not being around.  PMS isn’t helping the situation, that’s for sure.  Here’s the first photo he sent me.  We’re calling it “Change of Command – CID style”.  It’s taken in front of their office/living quarters door.

We can’t do web cams like we thought.  Their system down there is so bogged down that it’s taking several hours for our emails to reach each other. They aren’t allowed to use web cams because it just makes it worse. I can’t complain.  He’s able to call home every day.  A lot of guys can’t do that.

Daniel has been really trying hard to be helpful and behaving.   Joseph has been… well… Joseph.  lol.  It’s our fault.  We spoiled him rotten and now I’m paying for it.  Being a single parent sucks.  My hats off to those of you that can survive it better than I.  Even Aggie isn’t behaving.  I don’t know if she’s just going through her adolesence or if she misses Dan or what the deal is but she’s had accident after accident in the house.  Right by the back door and right after I’ve let her out.  She’s driving me crazy with it.  I’ve tried everything.  Even starting over with the crate.  She insists on going on the remnant by the door instead of barking to go out.  She did better when she was two months old than now at five months.  All she has to do is look at me with that, “Whaat?”  look and she’s forgiven.

I’m really looking forward to Summer.  I think a lot of moms dread it.  I’m looking forward to being able to just kick back and relax with the boys and do our own thing for a while.  It was a busy week volunteering at the school and I have a busy time with Confirmation and 1st Communion coming up at the church.  I also need to start planning the Teacher Appreciation dinner for my volunteers.  Good that it’ll all make time go fast, not so good that it’s all stressing me out.

I’d really like to thank you for the emails and comments of support.  I’m trying to get through all of them to reply personally so please bear with me.