COFFIN BIG ENOUGH?

     I've changed my mind.

    Previously, not wanting to take up any more space than necessary after I left this planet, I gave directions for cremation.

    My new plan is to be buried in a coffin. I want my survivors to put in my coffin with me all my unfinished knitting projects, along with my considerable collection of knitting needles. (If they can find a coffin big enough.)

    I want to have something to keep me occupied during my afterlife.

I FAILED CASA

     My interest in CASA came from a neighbor who was involved in two of the three programs available through Johnson County CASA.

    I took the eight training sessions, was given a CASA case, a divorced couple, two children, father remarried. The son burned with the desire to talk to the judge; rarely ever were judges willing to talk directly with the children.

    The case was different from the beginning, although being a newcomer I was not aware. Rather than wait for the judge to assign the case to CASA, one of the attorneys had asked for CASA, which made them think they owned the process.

    My principle problem was that I was heavily involved in small claims court mediation. Every time I went to meet with one of the parties I kept telling myself, "This IS NOT mediation." And about midway I came to the conclusion that devoting my energy to mediation was time better spent.

    Sunflower Knitters Guild Association is giving me a chance to give back to CASA. I have lots of knit caps to donate to a CASA holiday event. Most of the caps were made from stash, which has resulted in very colorful combinations, and will make the gathering very festive.

    

APPARENTLY (K)NOT

     Knitters are dismayed to unexpectedly find a knot in the yarn they are working with. Knots are often hidden deep within the skein and are not revealed until the yarn is pulled out. There are ways in which a knitter can disguise the joining of the ends of two separate lengths of yarn -- if the break is known ahead of time.    

    I am told by my LYS -- local yarn store -- that makers of yarn are allowed a certain number of knots within a skein. Only one or two. I recently found some long-forgotten green Plymouth Yarn -- Encore -- in a file drawer I obviously hadn't opened for a long time. Perfect for knitting a cap on circular needles, with very few places in which to hide a yarn joining.

    Oooops, pulling the yarn out from the center of the skein, my fingers discovered a knot. Curses on the Plymouth Yarn people. What to do? Okay, I switched from a knit stitch to a purl stitch. Any interruption from a straight stockinette stitch would help hide the joining, and I could make a couple of rows of purling look like a design. Purling away, I felt the knot go through my fingers. Three or four stitches along, I stopped to view whether the knot had fallen on the inside -- hopefully -- or on the outside. I could see no knot, but something was wrong. So, I unknit for a few stitches, and the knot became undone.

    Sigh of relief. The knot was not the tying together of two loose ends, but truly a knot that under the right kind of pressure would undo. Take back my angry feelings about Plymouth Yarn folks.

        Precaution: Still haven't finished the cap -- there may still be hidden breaks ahead. I'll let you know.

SIDEWALK SALE ACROSS AMERICA

     My debut novel, Sidewalk Sale Across America, is about knitting, amateur radio, boosting a struggling economy and surviving the Pandemic.

    Sabrina Harkins owns a knit shop that she fears is going bankrupt since the first year of the Pandemic (we had no idea it was going to last so long) has forced "non-essential" businesses to stay closed, but she is counting on her husband's regular paycheck to keep the family afloat.

    Harold Harkins, an amateur radio operator, is worried that his day job with a vending machine company is going to be lost because with everyone working at home no one is buying vending machine goodies, but he knows the family will survive with the income from his wife's yarn shop.

    Sidewalk Sale Across America is available from Amazon (read the reviews).

MISSTITCH

     Had some leftover yarn from the Baby Surprise Jacket, and am now knitting a matching hat.

    Bought nine-inch No. 5 circular needles which are not so easy to work with. Will not know until I finish and take off the needles how close it will come to fitting a baby's head. But if the needles are nine-inch, and a baby's head around 13 inches it ought to work. Knitting in such close dimensions is somewhat cramped. I'm trying to watch as I go, so I don't create a misstitch that will be harder to correct later.

THE SURPRISE IS ON ME

     I've knit this pattern before. Why is it causing me so many problems this time?

    Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket. I've knit two of these jackets before, one for the daughter of a Japanese woman who married the son of a friend of mine. The couple were living in the United States at the time and I wanted the mother to have something that was typically American.

    On one of the jackets I even devised a way to create a garment with longer sleeves. The BSJ is a pattern that requires a lot of counting, but the result is spectacular.

    Well, excuse me, I have something I need to do . . . one . two . .  three . . . four . . . .

ONE STITCH TOO MANY

     Where did that stitch come from?

    It was one stitch too many.

    I used to laugh at the young woman in the first of Debbie Macomber's series of books centered on The Shop on Blossom Street. Her first knitting project was a scarf -- she kept finishing every row with the wrong number of stitches.

    A Baby Surprise Jacket, from Elizabeth Zimmerman's pattern, is an exercise in counting. At least for me. I have knit Baby Surprise Jackets before, but cannot now remember the details. You knit and knit and knit and finally achieve a relatively flat, oddly shaped piece of knitting. Then you sew two sections together to make the sleeves, and abracadabra, you have a baby sweater.

    But you have to keep counting the stitches. If you do not have the correct number of stitches, you have to froggit (I think that's the word, I should research it some time), back track until you have unknit back to a place where the count is correct. I've done a lot of unknitting on this project.

TWO EXTRA BALLS?

    Trying to knit up my stash.

    Too much stash can be overwhelming.

    Started to knit a hat with some multi-colored yarn. Thought I had two balls. Tried to keep them together even while I carried the project around, especially if I'm waiting in the car. Kept finding the second ball, kept putting it some place where I would be able to find it when I needed it. This morning I found the "second" ball near my upstairs recliner. Tried to think of where I could put it so I could find it when I needed it. Then, slowly, realized I had already joined the second ball to the project. I had two "second" balls.

    Knitting up the stash can be overwhelming.

    Added: I have forgotten how to activate the comment section, so I am going to add an email. I've forgotten also how to create an email link. Just send an email to friendshipfountain@yahoo.com .

Ancient Tools

Crocheting is so tedious. Knitting is much more fun.

So with dread I approach the task of crocheting a small chain to make a tiny hanging loop in a knit facecloth.

I've inherited a number of sewing tools, from several older women in my family, and alas, the previous ownership of most of them cannot now be traced. I picked up a crochet hook, works okay for the job, although a slightly bigger hook might make the task a bit easier. What size is the hook I'm using? Must be a number somewhere on the hook. Okay, it's made by Boye, a highly respected name in needleworking tools, and it's a size 5. Made in the U.S.A., I find on the opposite side, along with some more numbers -- 15 cents, only it's the little "c" with a slant line drawn through.

I stare at the price marking, permanently stamped in the metal.

Which grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, great-aunt, great-great-aunt could have been the original owner? Which ancestor of mine lived in a time of such economic stability that a manufacturer dared put a stamp, permanently on metal, of the price of their products?

I Take It All Back

She is NOT a heartless, remorseless girl, she is a beautiful teen-ager with admirable manners, and great writing skills.

When I picked up my mail, I thought it was another Christmas card, it was the right shape, but it was instead a lovely thank-you for the red and yellow (gold) ankewarmers. Besides thank-you, she also wrote that the anklewrmers would be very welcome for walks from campus building to building.

That girl was showing her true colors! I do not receive, nor do I expect, a thank-you from someone whom I have talked to, but sometimes my anklewaremers travel to other homes, and I have received many thank-yous from people I have never met, or perhaps seldom see.

Stay warm.

Reporting a Theft !

I want to report the theft of a pair of anklewarmers.

The granddaughter of some friends of mine stole (yes, STOLE, as in "to steal") her father's ankle warmers.

Well, that was the first report. Upon the receipt of more information, it appears that the anklewarmers she stole were pink, which was NOT the color her father had chosen for himself. It's true, he also chose a pair of pink anklewarmers, which were intended for his wife.

But the theft still stands. This heartless girl stole her MOTHER'S anklewarmers. And now, she's not even remorseful -- she wants another pair in her school colors. I don't want to single out this thief by telling you her name, but the colors where she goes to college are red and yellow. Any guesses where that might be?

WAITING IN QUEUE LINES

That's when I get my knitting done -- well, some of it.

I'm not like that dedicated Canadian knitter who carries a sock project with her wherever she goes and once lost a ball of fine blue merino yarn down an elevator shaft, but whenever I'm faced with making a telephone call that is likely to put me in a queue line the first thing I do is pick up a current project.

It's a bit of a trick to tuck the telephone under a shoulder, but once settled it does very little to slow down my pace. Normally, I wouldn't even mention that I'm knitting while I'm talking -- or waiting -- but once I got so angry at the transaction I snapped back at the service representative by telling her that I had already spent so much time explaining my problem to so many people I had been able to knit fourteen rows on a rather complicated shawl.

The last part was a lie -- I don't knit complicated things. The fourteen rows might have been an exaggeration as well, but I heard a little gasp and I knew she had gotten my drift. I regretted later that I had not asked the service representative about her current knitting project.

Maybe even given her my blog address.

DAY KNITTING AND NIGHT KNITTING

How can there be a difference, you ask.

Like most knitters, I often have more than one project going at the same time. Normally, I have one project downstairs next to my comfortable chair, and another upstairs next to my recliner. Never waste a minute.

Recently, in order to have the right size needles, I picked up a pair of metal -- I think it's aluminum -- needles, and rediscovered something I had forgotten since becoming accustomed to wooden needles. Because metal needles create less friction, they are much faster.

They do have a major drawback, regretfully. At night the shiny reflections can cause considerable eye strain, hence as long as I'm using metal needles, I'll be forced to divide my projects into day knitting and night knitting.

KNITTING MORE COMPLICATED

Well, I exaggerate. Shawls aren't really more complicated (oh, they can be, but then you have to start counting stitches).

The below-mentioned shawl in muted blues and greens turned out to have a lovely, fluid feel to it. The yarn was soft merino (which I think comes from a certain breed of sheep, but what do I know?) I took it to a planning meeting, and it was bought on the spot -- money to go into the treasury to pay for the convention.

DID AUNTIE EM WEAR A SHAWL?

I'm trying to remember -- does Auntie Em wear a shawl?

Certainly not when she's out by the hen house with Uncle Henry, putting the new chicks into coops just ahead of the looming storm.

Maybe later -- there's those scenes after the house and everyting else has been carried up into the sky, remember the despicable Miss Almira Gulch riding her bike in the wind, and Auntie Em swinging back and forth in her rocking chair, blissfully knitting as if she were sitting in her parlor firmly on the ground?

Didn't Auntie Em wear a shawl then?

The blue-green shaded triangular shawl I've just finished is for the silent auction at the 2010 Kansas Authors Club on October 1-3, but I'm tempted to keep it for myself. Only, you know Auntie Em would be wearing brown, not blue.

WHAT'S HARDER THAN KNITTING?

unknitting!

I had one of two panels of my new project almost finished, and I could see that the panel was not going to be either wide or long enough. Even the clerk at the knit shop admitted that the written pattern for the jacket/shawl did not match the illustration. And it was easy to see that three skeins of yarn were not going to be sufficient. I went back home and with the skein wrapper in hand telephoned back with the color and dye lot.

Waited for the order to be filled.

Several days later went back to the knit shop to pick up the extra skein of yard -- did I say this yarn is Peruvian? Lovely. Soft, delightful to the touch. And a heavenly denim-y color. I should mention that the knitting was being done with two strands of thread at the same time. The clerk was knitting her jacket/shawl with two different colors of thread, producing a mottled effect.

Drat! The new skein, in fact the two new skeins, since apparently the minimum order is two skeins, were a different dye lot. The color difference was slight, but still enough to make a difference.

So what was the logical thing to do? Buy both of the new skeins, of course. Knit the panels using one skein from one dye lot and another skein from the second dye lot.

And face the task of unraveling the first panel. Took me hours to complete the unraveling. I tried several different approaches to the problem, but they were all tedious. Some involved stretching the yarn across the room. The two strands had not been twisted together, but they clung to each other like entwined vines.

I have come close to completing the first panel, but I have not bound off the stitches in case I decide to add a few more rows. I'll make that decision when I am near to completing the second panel and can better envision how the finished garment will look.

Thinking of how stunning the finished garment will look keeps me going, but it sure takes a long time. When I do finish, I'll be more than ready to go back to ankle warmers.

A BIGGER PROJECT

You know how it is -- you walk into the knit shop, only needing one little skein for a small project, like ankle warmers, the construction of which requires very little imput from the brain, and you walk out with $45.00 worth of Peruvian yarn and the pattern for a short jacket.

You didn't even spend much time thinking about it. You walked around the corner of the display shelves, and there it was, hanging about eye level, a jacket/shawl sort of thing, only you didn't especially like the color and even more enticingly, one of the clerks was making the same garment.

The pattern doesn't look too complicated, and if you have any difficulty, well, there's the clerk, quite a few stitches into the project, which is good, because if you have any trouble figuring it out, there she is, a ready resource. (Well, ezcept on Sunday or Monday when the shop is closed -- oh, how agonizing to have to wait until the shop opens again on Tuesady morning -- it is true, a harrowing experience, should it ever befall to you, yarn withdrawal symptoms.)

Even as I cast on 94 stitches, the highest amount, the biggest sise in the pattern, I knew the piece would not be long enough. Hardly fourteen rows, and I decided to take it all apart. Done with two threads, even more tedious to unravel.

I added 30 stitches, and then because I still had some length in the tail, add six more stitches -- 130 in all.

This is going to take a lot longer than a pair of ankle warmers.

BAMBOO WILL WEAR OUT

Bamboo needles wear out. I should have been prepared. I bought my first pair very reluctantly, thinking that the shafts would not be sturdy enough, and they soon became my favorites. Metal knitting needles have become my absolutely, avoided-whenever-possible, last choice, and plastic needles are hardly any better.

Sadly, I've now discovered, the points will eventually show some wear. The erosion is visible, as the points are now misshapen, but even worse, the new irregular shape creates an inaudible click at every stitch. ("Inaudible click" might be an oxymoron, but you knitters know what I mean.)

On a website about recycling I once read that any clever person could find a new use for the chopsticks they received at an oriental restaurant by converting them into knitting needles. Shaping the points was the hardest part, it was admitted, and the resulting needles might be a tad shorter, but after all, the motivation was recycling, not knitting.

The next question is, how does one recycle used bamboo knitting needles? Put them aside for the moment. Sooner or later someone, perhaps a child, will express an interest in learning to knit. Start them out with the the less-than-perfect bamboo needles, but point out that they will want to get a new pair of their own as soon as they get the hang of the craft.

OBSTINATE YARN

All you knitters know what uncooperative yarn is -- it's a curse and an abomination. If it's goat yarn, you could blame the source. Or camel yarn -- I had some of that yarn one time. But acrylic stuff? I've used other yarns of this brand before, and had no trouble, but this particular skein has been a trouble-maker from the start. Non-knitters never seem to understand knitting from the inside out, where you pull the yarn from the center of the skein. Some manufacturers make it easy to find that inside end of the skein, others like to turn it into a game of hide-and-seek. This elusive end didn't reveal itself until I had pulled out nearly half of the yarn from the center. Your immediate goal becomes knitting up all those loose strands until you reach that satisfying moment when you can neatly pull the yarn from the center. I had almost finished the hat before I reached that point.

I expected smooth going, uninterrupted ease. But no way. That stubborn skein still refused to let go of its yarn. Every little tug to get enough length to continue knitting met with fierce resistence. I'm three-quarters through the skein now -- how long will it continue to fight me back?

KNITTING AND THE INTERNET

It's amazing how much knitting I can finish while sitting in front of my computer screen. And I'm not just looking up new knitting patterns.

Just got my computer back from the repair shop, but drat, it's no faster than it was before. Still takes an incredible amount of time to switch to the next screen.

While I wait, I'm churning out hats in several sizes, some blue baby caps, and some red and blue (think KU) and mixed purple (think K-State) hats for both kids and adults. Not to mention the old tried and true ankle warmers, legwarmers, boot toppers.

We are facing changes in the way television, telephone, and internet services are provided for this household. If the speed is improved, it sure will eat into my knitting time.