Petunia rambles on and on….

Went north yesterday, to see Son#1, and deliver his BIG birthday present. Literally, it came in a box bigger than what he could get into the trunk of his car. Good excuse to drive up there – it takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get to his house, and the last 10 miles through beautiful rolling hills with many Amish farms. I love it. And I got to see the Susquehanna again

Son’s birthday gift, a stand for his huge toolbox, is something that he wants to use for work, so shortly after I got there, we were back in the car heading out again. We dropped the box off where he works (he’ll assemble it on Monday) and then he and I went to lunch. The route we took requires crossing a toll bridge, one of those where you pay nothing going west, but pay twice the amount coming back east. BUT, and perhaps only those that live in the area know this, apparently for the price of crossing the bridge eastbound you can request a decal for the car that will now allow me to cross toll-free for a year. Admittedly, this bridge is 75 miles away from here, but this is the perfect excuse for me to nag poor husband into taking me up to the Susquehanna State Park, which I’ve long wanted to go to, and we’ve just never gotten around to. Life/kids/job/stuff keeps getting in the way.

And we’d better go soon, before the price of gas here gets so high that I’ll have to take out a second mortgage to drive that far again. I saw $3.199 yesterday, the west coast is already higher and those prices are moving our way. It’s going to get so bad that people are gonna be digging into their grocery money to put fuel in the car, so they can go back and forth to work to earn the grocery money. And then, it’ll get worse. And the worst part is that we know the people at the top of these gas companies aren’t taking a financial hit. It’s just us bastards at the south end of the food chain that get slammed. I’m sure CEOs aren’t wondering if they’re gonna have to eat beans most of next week in order to fill up their tanks. Oh, well, another subject where I can do nothing but bitch, and that hasn’t been helpful yet. Better to think about a lovely day at the State Park, sitting on a blanket eating a picnic lunch.

Anyway, I enjoyed my day with son and his wife, and today I’m watching twins while their mother works – it is naptime now, so I’ve gotta make this quick!!

Knitting News

I’m back working on Claudia Hand Painted Peppermint Mocha. Gorgeous stuff, love the feel of it, love the colorway, already screwed them up once. This yarn is so special, and IT MUST BE KNIT PROPERLY!

Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, Peppermint Mocha

Maybe you can see that I’m working them “two-at-a-time” which I like so much better. Some say, “Oh, it seems like it takes soooo much longer that way. “Well, it may seem that way, but I’ll stand with, uh, it takes 2 socks-worth of time. What I like is that, damn it, I end up with 2 socks. Not one beautiful sock and a promise.

I’m doing these with the Magic Loop method, on a KnitPicks regular circ, size 1, 47″ long. I’m new to the Magic Loop method, having used it only one-at-a-time for the sleeves on sweaters for the twins, but figured that if one sleeve/sock can be done that way, surely 2 can. I searched around on the internet and ended up using the directions provided by Kristen to get it started. She has a lot of pictures that clearly explain this to beginners. I think I messed up one part, something about flipping the whole thing over and something and something.As you can see above, I have one row of purl bumps showing at the very end of the toes. I bet, had I followed those directions closer, I would have eliminated those bumps. I think it’s my error, not her directions, and I chose to leave them there. Next time, I may chose differently! I recommend the site, and the method. It was the first “Figure 8″ Cast-on that I’ve ever liked, where it’s not neccessary to tweak the initial stitches and adjust them to even them out. Thanks, Ms Kristen, I appreciate your effort it putting it up for all to use.

And I mentioned using a 47″ needle. Aaah, must confess to another purchase. I did the small sleeves Magic Loop, one at a time, on a 32″ needle. As I liked the method, and was pleased not to be dealing with all the hanging little fiddly bits of the 2 circs method, I knew I’d want to try it with 2 socks, and I knew I’d need longer needles. So I ordered 3 from KnitPicks, each 47” long, sizes 1, 2 and 3. That should cover all the socks that I do. Because of my eyes, I’ll never work on anything that needs a finer needle than a size 1. And while I was in the neighborhood to avoid paying shipping costs, I looked at the clearance yarns and decided to order a sweater’s worth (12 skeins) in Wool of the Andes, Mulled Wine. A sale is always a good thing.

Knit Picks, Wool of the Andes, color Mulled Wine

And I also got 13 skeins of Wool of the Andes, Forest Heather, which should make a nice sweater for Pop. These were not on sale, but anyway, it wasn’t that much of a sale, only 20 cents per skein, and I thought this might soften the impact of another box of yarn arriving! “Look, honey, at what I picked out just for you.”

Knit Picks, Wool of the Andes, Forest Heather

It’s a nice “man” color, and he is pleased with my choice.

Books

And the very next day, an Amazon package showed up. I had pre-ordered 2 Blu-Ray DVDs and added 2 craft books to the order. To save on the shipping costs, I agreed to hold the entire order until the movies were available; I was fine with that. As always, Amazon went ahead and shipped the books now at no extra charge!

I’ve had my eye on Spinning in the Old Way by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts for quite a while. Couldn’t resist any longer.

I’ve got her Knitting in the Old Way, and found it fascinating. It made quite an impression on me, and I’m already more “daring” with regard to implementing my ideas, not sticking exactly to patterns, and even, going it alone without a pattern at all. Because I was so pleased with Knitting and am now a beginner spinner, I knew I had to get this.

And I also found Start Spinning by Maggie Casey. I’ve seen articles by her on the net, and know she is a most respected teacher of great skill. Might as well try to learn from the best – my other choice, ask my poodle, hasn’t gotten me very far yet.

And I ordered all this through a link to Amazon on Ravelry. I understand that Ravelry receives a bit of a cut as a sponsor, or some such. All who are members benefit from Ravelry; if they get something from my order, I’m happy about it.

Anyhow, now, I need time to read, study, digest, practice. Uninterrupted. Quiet.That’s all.

I’ll be “On the Road Again” today.  Delivering a very large birthday present.  (This is no surprise to him; he picked it out, he knows it’s coming, he knows I’m bringing it up today)  It’ll take about an hour and a half to get up there.

Son has one of those huge Craftsman toolboxes – its about the size of a camper.  For ease of use, and more storage space, a stand for them is available.  It’s on casters, has several more locking drawers, a big sturdy shelf, and puts the main box at counter-top height which is much easier on one’s back.  Apparently, a “wonder among wonders” for the tool box set.  That’s what he wants.   It comes in a box big enough to hold a camper and it weighs 120 lbs.  That’s part of the problem.  Because of the commuting son’s been doing, he’s driving a small, easy-on-gas, car and the huge box won’t fit in.  It can easily fit in the back of my Baby SUV, although getting it in there was fun.   Getting it out will not be MY problem!!

I’ll bring my knitting with me, and perhaps, instead of taking son and large package down to where he works, I’ll just give him the keys to the vehicle, and sit and visit with DIL.  That may work out even better!

I’ll bring a camera with me, but I often forget to use it.  Going through that area where they do strange things to the “native fauna.”

I belong to Ravelry and as a rule, I greatly enjoy it, and I’ve gained a great deal from it.  We won’t discuss the “time suck” aspect of Ravelry, or how much cleaner my kitchen floor would be if I didn’t spend so much time sitting in front of the computer, and instead, got to know my mop a bit better.  I belong to quite a few of their groups, too.  Some are project-centered, some are geographic, many are spinners.  Some are based upon patrons of various online stores.  I am a member of groups for both KnitPicks and for The Loopy Ewe.   These groups are forums, where all post and comment, sometimes ad nauseum.

The Loopy Ewe carries many lines of yarn from independent spinners and/or dyers.  Small outfits that produce as much as they can, but not large commercial outfits.  Maybe it’s one person working in their kitchen, maybe a handful, but clearly, production is NOT on the massive scale that we expect from Lion Brand, a line that’s found in every craft store and big-box cutrate department store.  You know the ones.   So…   One notable blog person or another mentions a new, nice yarn, it gains favor, and then – there’s a run on it.  Like sharks, people freak over yarn purchasing.  I’ve posted about it before, because this sort of thing really bothers me. 

And in Ravelry, on one of the Loopy Ewe forums, it’s happening again.    And it got to me.  I started to post into the forum, and then, I thought it was starting to sound like a rant.  So I didn’t post it there.  Here, I can say what I want.

Meliabella,

Thanks for writing what I’ve been thinking, and saying it so nicely.  I was thinking along the lines of, “FPS, folks, IT’S ONLY YARN!”  I thought about just dropping some of these groups, because all I’ve read for days is a bunch of adults whining about their misery.  And their “misery” is over not getting the skein of yarn they wanted.  It’s YARN, people.  Nobody’s gonna die for lack of yarn, no one’s starving while watching food fall into the ocean.  It’s not the cure for some horrible disease being lost to dying patients.   I just can’t understand why so many people are so freaked out over it.  Several times every month, there are threads and threads like this, with hundreds of people whining over not getting a skein of yarn.  I, too, was wondering how they behaved in the mall, if their size or color was sold out.  Do they throw themselves to the floor and kick?  Do these people know what they sound like?  What’s even scarier is – if people carry on like this over yarn, what would they do if they ever REALLY had troubles?

I should be used to this sort of behavior.  I have a set of twin grandsons living with me, and one is frequently whining when the other has the toy he wants.  They are 2 years old.  I expect this from that age.  Here, it astounds me.

Perhaps I shouldn’t post this on their forum. 

Perhaps I should just go sit in a corner and knit.  It calms me.