So I love to knit socks for my grandfather because he loves them. He even requested a pair of socks to be put aside for his burial. He believes in being prepared. lol. I knit those with fine charcoal alpaca. There’s no better way to get a knitter to knit for you again than to love her gifts and wear them so much that you wear them out. I was talking to my Gram the other day and she informed me that my grandfather is in dire need of new socks. He has taken to duck-taping all of the socks I knit for him so they won’t wear out any more! lol. I swear he’s a completely sane, very intelligent even, man. Okay, okay Gramps. I got the hint. More socks soon.
For the second year in a row I bought “Odessa’s” fleece from Whitefish Bay Farm. I’ll post a picture on the first sunny day when I can take it outside and spread it out. You can see the variation in this swatch. I’m telling you… it’s the most stunning, soft, clean fleece. It goes from silver grey on one end to a charcoal grey on the other. CLEAN! Ahhh… heaven. I got the idea for this swatch from one of the spinner’s I met at the Spinning Retreat in Scotland last Summer, Freyalynn Close-Hainsworth. Her gorgeous Misty Mountains Shawl was in the Fall 2003 issue of Spin Off and was the winner of the 2002 Majacraft International Competition of Fiber Innovation. She used Vivian Hoxbro’s Domino Knitting for the knitting of the diamonds in the shawl. The beauty of it though is the way she carded and spun the wool. She kept the dark and light locks separated and the result was diamonds that blended like this little rectangle I did with Odessa’s fleece. She even knit beads into it. Gorgeous shawl. I still want a pair of Viking Combs after watching her use them in Scotland.
It’s my new favorite knitted baby gift. Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket. Way too much fun to knit. I had just enough of some of my hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn to knit it with too. I have to find the perfect buttons and stitch it up for a new baby boy. You can find it in The Opinionated Knitter and Knitter’s #56 (Fall ’99).
I had such a good time knitting it (great mindless TV knitting), that I’ve already cast on another in cotton for the baby my brother and SIL are adopting. They live in Arizona, so I think wool would be a bit unwelcome, don’t you?
I couldn’t resist the Humpty Dumpty in the new Spin Off. When I was a little girl I had a big Humpty that I slept with. In my mind he was big but I was about four then so who knows. I was living with my Gram in New Hampshire at the time and I remember Humpty being an issue with my Aunts because he took up too much bed space. It was usually my Aunt Ruthann that let me sleep with her. Don’t know if it was because she was so kind about it or if it was because she was the youngest of the girls (she’s only six years older than me). Probably a little of both. At the time my Grandfather was the Fish & Game Warden in Center Ossipee. The house was at the top of the hill and at the bottom were the large tanks for the fish that he used to restock the lakes and ponds. I think my Humpty was drained out of one of those tanks many years later.
My new Humpty looks a little more like a huge Smiley face with arms and legs but I like the little bow tie he’s sporting.
When… oh… when will I learn?! Gauge, gauge, gauge. I’ve knit with Elann’s Highland Wool quite a bit, and I love the stuff, but for some reason I’m not getting gauge with this color (Forest Glade Heather). Actually, I’m liking the gauge I’m getting which is 21 sts to the inch. I’ve always gotten 19 or 20 before with other colors. At any rate, I’m going to have to rip and pull it out because 40″ is just not going to cut it for my man. But take a look at that ribbing, eh??? I made the right choice in knitting with the same needle size and same number of sts for the ribbing as I am in the body. I can’t imagine adding 43 sts to that! So… onward.
I will be anxiously waiting for my order to arrive from Elann next week (hopefully). Yesterday’s deal was too tempting for me to resist. They offered up 1/2 pound bags of color coordinated samples for $24. I bought a bag of the naturals/whites and a bag of the browns/beige’s or was it tans… dunno, but the plan is to use it to make a knock-off Ab Fab throw. My living room colors are sagey browns and tans so it’ll be perfect. I can not wait to see my goodies!!
I heard from Jeremy yesterday. He got back to his post outside of Mosul only to be put back on a helicopter. He’s moving to the center of the city now. The vet and Army wife parts of me are telling me it’ll be okay. He’ll be fine. The mother in me is telling me I should have locked him up in a room and kept him while I had him. I’m really struggling with this.
On top of that we had a parent/teacher conference at the school yesterday for Daniel. We’ve noticed him having a harder time of it the past couple of months and he has an appointment up in Würzburg next Wednesday. Unfortunately, we don’t know if the new doctor has any experience with Asperger’s Syndrome. He can’t continue on the Concerta because he’s stopped growing. He’s already anorexic skinny, but now he’s not growing in height either. There’s also been a lot of problems with bullying at the school. Daniel is a magnet for this already and he’s starting to realize he’s different and he’s being left out of things. He’s rebelling and I’m really starting to worry. We have some excellent social stories workbooks for him. I had him do a chapter on friends yesterday just to see where he is. It’s not like you can just sit him down and talk to him about it because he won’t share his feelings. These workbooks are perfect because he writes much more easily than he can speak. At any rate, the results broke my heart. Before where he was completely unaware of being singled out, now he’s totally aware of it and it’s hard for him. He turns 11 in July, so I know part of it is just normal pre-teen stuff, but the Asperger’s puts a whole other twist on it. I’m really anxious to get to NY. We’ve been told that the support there is outstanding and there’s a lot of knowledge in the area we’ll be. Thank God because we’ve always been pretty much alone and I’m so tired of trying to make people understand. With something like Down’s Syndrome, people know by sight something is wrong. With Autism kids look “normal” and people just don’t get it. Hell, sometimes Dan and I don’t get it and it takes us a while to catch on to something going on in Daniel’s mind.
Anyway, sorry about the venting. I think I need to go knit…. See you on Monday.
Ha! And you all thought I wasn’t getting any knitting done just because I wasn’t blogging! Oh, ye of little faith! We had plenty of car time with Jeremy here so I was able to finish the Must Have before we went down to the Alps so I could get some cool pics. Don’t mind the ‘do. Just look at the sweater and mountains. My hairdresser is moving (story of my life) and you have no idea what it’s like to find a good hairdresser in Germany that speaks English well enough that you feel totally safe with your hair in their hands. But I digress…
Wanna see something funny? Just “met” another Army-wife-knit-blogger here in Germany today and she went down to the Edelwiess a few weeks ago.
It really is a small world. Now I gotta find out where she found that Phildar store!! C’mon, Allena, fess up!!
The color in the picture of the front is accurate. The one of the back is all washed out but it’s a good close-up.
So, my first real cable sweater is finished and it didn’t take me two years to do. I’ve done simple cables before but nothing like this. Well… I did the Cables 101 Vest a few years back, but that was easy compared to the Must Have. Dan’s been asking for a cabled sweater for years and now I have no excuse. Dangnargit. Just shot myself in the foot.
Haven’t really decided on the next project yet. I think I’ve become a one project girl. I seem to get more done that way. I need to do a few baby gifts and the next adult sweater is Dan’s. I think it’s going to be this one. It’s Sirdar 8313 that I picked up at John Lewis in Glasgow. God, I loved going through all those pattern books. I love Sirdar and Patons patterns and they were in abundance there. Very manly man sweater. Actually…. now that I look at it, lol, it kind of reminds me of an Army uniform sweater. LOL. Greeeaaat.
It calls for DK and I’m using Elann Highland Wool (of course) in about the same color, so I’ll have to do some tweaking. No biggie. Weird pattern though. It starts out with about 50 more stitches that you reduce at the end of the 3×3 ribbing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before so I’m a little nervous. Sound weird to anyone else?
What a whirlwind of a past two weeks it’s been. Jeremy arrived on the morning of April 1st and we took him back to the airport for his trip back to Iraq yesterday. Sad trip as it was on top of the fact I’d caught a stomach bug on our way back from Garmisch so I was down for the count our last evening together. The two weeks went way to quickly but it was a nice break for him. The best part was the last few days we spent down in Garmisch at the Edelweiss Lodge Resort. It’s an Armed Forces resort that they just opened in October and it was wonderful. Jeremy spent one day up on the mountain (Zugspitz) snowboarding. He went up the second day but was so sore we had to go get him after and hour and a half. lol. We had rooms that connected on an inner corner so our balcony’s connected.
Here’s a great photo of Daniel, Joe and Jeremy together in Rothenberg. It’s a great little tourist town about 20 minutes from us.
Okay… he’s not a baby anymore. He’s almost 23, but you moms know what I mean. He will always be my baby.
I got an email from Jeremy a couple of mornings ago that he’s getting his two week R&R from Iraq NEXT WEEKEND!!!! We’re going to do things around here for the first week and let him rest and then we’ll take him skiing in Garmisch the second week. They just finished the new Armed Forces Resort Center a few months ago and it’s gorgeous. It’ll be a great change from the sand of Iraq for him.
This picture was taken at his Basic Training Graduation in Ft. Sill, OK in October 2001. Dan was at the Pentagon assisting with the 9/11 investigation at the time, so it was just Daniel, Joe and I driving across country to celebrate with Jeremy. Daniel and Joe are so little in it.
We don’t know exactly what day he’ll get here, but I won’t tell Daniel and Joseph until the end of the week or they’ll be useless in school. It was hilarious the other night with Joe. It was the night I found out and Joe was saying his prayers. We always do the Guardian Angel, Our Father and one Hail Mary. After that he does his blessings. After his Hail Mary he started the Sign of the Cross. I asked him about his blessings and he said, “But I’ve been praying for a long time for Jeremy to come home and it hasn’t happened yet” I laughed and told him not to give up. Then I asked him if he’d rather have Jeremy home or go to Garmisch (Joe LOVES Garmisch). He said Jeremy. Won’t he be surprised when he gets both! 😉
On the fiber front…. meet Molly. Okay… it’s just Molly’s fleece but it’s scrumptious. Beautiful silver grey Romney. I bought it from Melissa at Skylines Farm. I wanted to scour it yesterday but it’s rainy here in Germany so I’ll have to wait for a sunny day.
Hope everyone has a great weekend and a very happy Easter!
We got home at 3am on Saturday morning. I’ve spent the past couple of days doing laundry and getting the house back in order. Now I have time to share some photos from our trip.
We got into Glasgow City Center around 10pm on Monday night. It was pouring rain and pretty much stayed that way for all of our trip. It kind of adds to the ambiance of Scotland though so it wasn’t so bad. In fact, if the boys hadn’t been sick it wouldn’t have bothered me much at all. We did miss out on a lot of scenery though because the clouds were so low. That just means we’ll have to go back! 😉
We got our rental car Tuesday morning and headed for Stirling. Thank God we rented the car. The tour bus we were expecting to take around Stirling isn’t running until after Easter. Some of the things to see are quite a drive from the center. We saw Stirling Castle, Bannockburn and the Wallace Monument. It’s a beautiful city.
From there we headed up to Aberfoyle where the Wool Center is. I got to speak to one of the women that spin there and bought some of her hand spun. All of the outside activities were closed because of the rain.
We continued on through the beautiful countryside to Crianlarich where our B&B is. If you are ever in the area, Jan and Sandy at the Riverside Guesthouse were wonderful hosts and their place is simply beautiful. This is the view we had from the large window in our room (the Dochart Room).
It was the perfect middle point for all the places we wanted to go to. In the evening we went to The Ben More for our dinner. The boys made friends with the new owners’ son, Charlie, and played pool with him each night while we enjoyed a pint after we ate. Again, a great place. The new owners have only had the place for a few weeks, but the food and friendly atmosphere was terrific.
Here’s an outside shot of the guesthouse from their website. Notice the blue sky? We didn’t see that. lol.
On Wednesday we headed up through the Highlands to Glencoe.
The scenery was gorgeous all the way up. We had spurts of rain with little bits of sunshine that gave us great views like this on at the visitor’s center in Glencoe.
They have a great exhibit on the history of the Glen. I was happy to find out that my Campbell Clan was not as guilty in the massacre that happened there as was once thought.
Thursday was all about the islands of Mull and Iona. We left the B&B at 6:30 so we could make it in time for the 8am ferry out of Oban.
Look closely at this photo of our rental car. See the green door? Notice how much room is not left behind our car? That was what you call a very close call. Some dummy I forgot to reserve the ferry!! I’m the most organized traveler on this planet and I forgot something as huge as that!! As you can see, we just got on that ferry. Our entire day would have been ruined if we had to wait for the next ferry a couple of hours later.
After the 45 minute ride from Oban to Craignure on Mull, we drove straight across the island to Fionnphort to catch the ferry to Iona. Here are Dan and the boys being cheesy for the camera with the Iona ferry in the background.
And another one below of some of the island sheep grazing.
It’s a good thing we’d only planned on spending an hour on Iona. The skies absolutely opened up on us and the only place to hide was in the alcove of the bathrooms by the ferry ramp. Joe was the only one not in a waterproof coat. He was drenched. To make matters worse, as we got off the ferry back in Fionnphort a wave came over the ramp and finished him off.
Our hostess from the B&B had packed a great picnic lunch for us. We ate it in the Ferry waiting room in Fionnphort waiting for the rain to subside. It didn’t so we ran to the car and drove to see Minty on Ardalanish hoping she’d have a dryer for Joe’s coat and shoes. I forgot to mention… I finished the scarf in her own sheeps’ wool in the car on the way to the airport but I completely forgot to take a picture of it. Bad, bad blogger! I bought the wool when I visited her farm with the Knitting/Spinning group in July. If you have really good eyes you can see it on her in this photo of her with her two-day old Highland calf. How cute is he? (the scarf is the Robert Seaman’s Scarf from Myrna Stahman’s Shawls and Scarves)
When we arrived she gave Joe a dry pair of socks and a wool blanket to wrap up in. She’d made us a delicious cake with apples and bramble berries and some tea. She made the boys some hot cocoa and we sat in her sun room taking in her beautiful view of the ocean.
After tea, we went down to the weaving workshop and to the barn to see the new baby cow. She showed the boys where her chickens lay their eggs (not in the hen house), let them climb up in the tractor and feed the chickens. As we were leaving, she gave me one of her Black Hebridean fleeces to take home with me. We only had about an hour before we had to get back to Craignure for the ferry back, but Minty managed to make us feel very warm and comfortable for the time we spent with her.
Here are some of the cows on the side of the one-lane road that goes through Mull.
We got back to Oban to wave at the camera. Jeremy didn’t see us. As luck would have it, he started his shift right when we were there waving frantically at the camera. We had a friend here in Germany text messaging us to let us know when the camera was on it. It was actually pretty hilarious. At least some of you all saw us and our friends here in Germany did too. It would have been a shame if no one saw the goofballs. lol.
This is my favorite picture from the whole trip. It’s the boys with Oban in the background.
When I was in Oban in July I bought some gorgeous wool lap blankets (thanks for the tip, Dodie!) for about $20 each. There was a sign saying they were on sale, but I thought it was a tourist thing and I’d get more when I came back. They really were on sale because they are twice that now. Argh. Now I wish I’d bought at least two more.
The next morning we got up, ate our last full breakfast and headed back to Glasgow. Somehow I navigated us directly to the car rental place without getting us lost. Okay… Dan had to make a couple of illegal turns, but we got there. I love Enterprise Car Rental. They picked us up the first morning and gave us a ride back to Central Station when we dropped the car off. We put our luggage in hold luggage at the train station and headed to the Science Center. When we got off the train we realized we were only a few blocks from the car rental. Now we know for next time. lol.
The boys LOVED the Science Center. They’ve been to Science Centers all over the place, but we had this one to ourselves after some school groups left. It was awesome.
We spent a couple of hours there and then headed to John Lewis so I could drool over the yarn. The exchange rate was so bad that I didn’t buy any but I did get the new Jaeger book. I saw the cover sweater in my new Knitters just before we left and knew I had to make it.
That about sums up our trip to Scotland. It was very hurried but we saw a lot and the boys loved it. Next time we’re going for longer than four days and we won’t try to fit so much in.
This is a 1st Armored Division soldier fixing the concertina wire to keep wandering sheep out of an Army compound. Their wool and faces look just like our guys’ desert BDU (Battle Dress Uniforms). Too funny.
On the knitting front… I’m a little more than half done with the 2nd front piece of the Must Have Cardigan. I also did the ChicKnits Shaker Rib Hat:
It’s a quick and thick hat!
The week before last I’d forgotten that I took pictures in Joe’s K-garten class after I did the spinning demo because they were on the letter “S”. I gave them each a piece of wool and a card with a sheep outline and spinning wheel on it. They made up their own little souveniers. Here are some of the kids:
Finally got to start on the Must Have yesterday. I have no idea why the color is all funky on the picture. It’s a deep cranberry.
I gotta tell ya. Cables kick my arse until I get used to them. It wasn’t until I got about three inches into the pattern that I finally started to feel like it was clicking along and the cussing pretty much stopped.
Though I ended up making up my own, a huge help for me was the “cheat” sheet that Kate made available to those of us on the Must Have KAL page. When I first saw it I had one of those slap-myself-upside- the-head moments. Duh. Why didn’t I think of that. Keeping track of different row changes in different cables is what has always deterred me from texture knitting before. I’m feeling pretty good about this one. I might just be a cabler after all! Speaking of “cheat sheets” you have to see the masterpiece that Nathania (Nathania Apple) made! All in color and everything.
I did find an error about halfway down the cable on the left side. It was a pretty easy fix though. I just dropped those nine stitches down to the mistake and knit them back up on double points. I almost like doing that. Makes me feel powerful. Like *I’m* the one in charge of the knitting and not the other way around.
Happy Valentine’s Day! I greeted my guys with heart-shaped pancakes this morning. Daniel thought I should try tree pancakes at Christmas next year. What am I? Pancake Picasso?
Daniel’s at school so I don’t have a factoid for today. I forgot to get one from him this morning. I was kind of thinking they’d get a snow day today because we got dumped on all night and it’s not supposed to stop for a couple of days.
