Austin...beyond city limits

This is a heavy-laden picture post. They can be clicked on to embiggen.

Anyone a Texas A&M fan?
If so, then you'll recognize this cutie from one of the Texas Cracker Barrels...Revelry, the mascot for Texas A&M. One must have a collie mascot to mirror our Tawny and to celebrate Blake's attendance there!
Here's daughter Beth with Cricket the Boston Terrier and Queenie the Kelpie. Such sweeties! And Beth motored Blake, Shelby, Russ and I around Austin to go Shepler's shopping, mall shopping, yarn shopping, coffee drinking and all that good stuff.

Yarn...did I say yarn?

We stopped at The Knitting Nest....one I had read about on Ravelry and on Franklin's blog. They were carrying in a birthday cake for Hank...it was March First, his First Birthday! Russ enjoyed Franklin's drawings on the wall as he had met Franklin several years ago at Camp 2.0.
They have a wonderful selection of Cascade 220 and since I'm planning to use it for several future projects, I had fun walking back and forth holding hanks up against one another for color combinations. And what do we have in the bag with the Cascade 220? A starbuck's 'sweater mug'! We were a little early to the shop and there was a Starbuck's a block away....perfect timing to get one of the Stabuck's mugs that knitters are talking about before all the mugs were gone! The mugs were on clearance, too! It is curious that the knitting and the cables are upside down...




Hank.





Have you ever seen such beautiful mesquite and pecan? This is just a tiny portion of the trees Thomas cut out of the pasture. They are being used right now for grilling in the smoker. What a wonderful fragrance met us when we returned from shopping to have Thomas stoking the smoker with mesquite for a terrific dinner.



Near the smoker was this friendly fella, Pete the Bloodhound. That's a four foot fence he's standing on.



Can you tell Shelby is really happy to be trying on clothes at her favorite store, Abercrombie & Fitch? She loves the perfumed air. The photos aren't bad, either. And the clothes on sale were a bonus.



Here's Cricket again, happy as can be to have her family back from shopping. Her tongue is just like that....

Thomas, Beth's husband, is the best outdoor cook. He's a mighty good ranch manager, too.
We are so pleased he could take a bit of time with us. "The Girls" cooperated in their calving.

This is far from the best picture of Blake, but better than the first try!!! He's our A&M guy who's doing very well his first year there, for which we're very proud.

Thank you Beth and family for the fun visit.

Back in time

We have been going down to the Austin area to visit Beth and her family each February the last few years. This has been such a very cold winter that we really
have needed to warm the very depths of our bones.


The week before we left while I was gathering things together and redding up(Irish slang and a popular phrase in the Pittsburgh area for 'straightening up') the house and such, Tawny and Nikki were particularly attentive to the process. The night before we left, Nikki laid on the couch, backed by my handspun pi shawl of the sheep I've known and loved. Nikki fur on it matches purrfectly!

Of the many years DH spent working radio in Texas, he worked in Waco several years, passing the Texas Ranger Museum four times daily. He never stopped to see it! Now was the time to remedy that situation.
This statue is in front of the museum. You can tell the wind was really blowing that day (as it was during most of our trip). I love how the Texas flag is stretched in the wind and makes it appear that the rider and horse are much more real than cast.

Although we didn't have as much time as we really needed, we did watch the movie and go through many of the exhibits. We were able to find the Texas Ranger who was DH's friend in Athens, Mr. Ben. I never knew him as DH's Texas time was "BN" (before Nancy). We will return again to the museum when we can schedule more time and see the parts we couldn't this visit.



It is evident while visiting the museum why "Walker, Texas Ranger" is broadcast daily through satellite television.

Where's the brown?

It's not the 67 degree day we had when the green grass and my pansies were awakening last week. But then, there aren't 92 mph winds, either.


The snow came back this week in 'nuisance snows' and rotten roads and big huge flakes in a blizzard format for 15 minutes. Then below zero windchills. The average temps this time of year are 40 and 28. True to form this season, we're feeling below average temps for extended periods. Whining is prevalent.

This shot was taken about 10 minutes ago. A beautiful, windless, cloudless morning. Sun certainly helps the mood... I'm dreaming of warmth.

W

At 2.75 in 2007, "W" was the top vote getter in 'The Devil Wears Zimmermann' segment. Linda knit that fabulous sweater you see on W here, a pattern directly out of EZ's work. Several of us have been passing W around and adding to his character.

Last summer W said that he felt that his heart was in a noose. Voila! Here is W with his black and bleeding heart in a noose. The heart is Red Heart Jeweltones and a Burgandy sport weight. The noose is a crochet chain of indeterminable origin, for which I learned via the internet how to tie a hangman's noose.

W goes home to Linda March 3rd...

On the new Laptop

we have a blog post!


Thanks to Karen, I was able to download my pictures without installing a program --- she indicated to me on Ravelry that Vista has a digital picture program installed. Sure enough, the laptop immediately recognized the driver and then the camera. Downloading pics was more complicated. But only because I had to do it in an alternative method. Thank you Karen!

This first picture is the goodies spread out for BBB Lesson #2. I just have to write up the answers for the questions. I have all my notes ready for transcription.



And just what is on the keyboard? It is an Aran Laptop Cover, pattern by Michael del Vecchio. I copied from the link on Ravelry for the reprint in Canadian Living magazine.

The stats: 24" Boye circular size 9, but really the equivalent of an 8.5 if there were such a thing. Yarn is some of my single ply handspun Romney. Originally I spun a lot of single ply to weave into a blanket. Never was able to get that set up in Cochise, so I have a lot of thickly spun single ply. Such pretty shiny Romney.

So far, this is really fun to knit.

10 Days???

I cannot believe it has been ten days since I've posted! Lots has been happening, along with trying to be patient.

Remember the new TV? Well, it had to be replaced and the new indoor antenna and TV haven't been set up yet. (I'm the one who does that even though he has the radio engineer certificate!)


Along with that technology, my current desktop (Northgate) is suffering and has already been rebuilt three years ago and was manufactured by a company that is out of business. So....we went and bought a HP Pavillion laptop (see above). I'm not fond of twenty gazillion wires, so will be going wireless. The modem came today which has an ethernet cord, but the router hasn't yet arrived. The router was ordered from Windstream the day before they said they'd send me a replacement modem since mine came with only the USB cord and I now need an ethernet cord.

In the meanwhile I've been changing the email address on many things. Windstream bought Alltel's landlines and Alltel internet/email here. The agreement to keep Alltel email addys runs out in May, so it's best to transfer things early. And it seems that it's better to change things now with the old computer than when I'm trying to set up the new programs, even though the Alltel mail still will be delivered to the Windstream Inbox until May 15th.





Then the update on the sox...a few more rows done.






And the RTB? Here's as far as I've gotten. Thought I'd also share my white poinsettia blooming now. The baby's 5 years old! RTB was coming along beautifully until the BBB Lesson#2 came. I haven't touched it since. The lesson and the socks have been getting more attention.

Let's see...we had a 67 degree day, the snow is all gone, it's back to 38, I'm fighting a sinus infection, applied to 2.75 and I drove a day.

Glad the weekend's almost here --- Happy St. Valentine's Day!

The Varmint said What???

Yesterday was the weather holiday of the year. Phil lied because of all the media lights. It was heavily overcast on Gobbler's Knob yesterday.

The snow has really melted, and the birds and squirrels are grateful for additional food appearing. Yesterday the big grey squirrel was running on maple limbs chasing three cawing crows. Usurpers! Today the snow is so compacted that both Tawny and I can walk on top of it, leaving barely a print.

It's a month of holidays. We started out with one heck of a Super Bowl game. Harrison's runback touchdown was amazing, especially for Harrison, a running back. And that touchdown 18 seconds to the end! Whew! The victory parade is at noon today. Hope has borne fruit. St. Brigid's Day was yesterday, also. Tomorrow is Registration Day! Presidents' Day is later in the month, the 16th this year. I still consider the holiday "presidents'" day rather than "president's" day since we combined Lincoln and Washington's birthdays (the 12th and the 22nd, respectively) and often throw in other presidents, too, such as on History Channel and PBS specials.



This morning before the milky clouds thickened, the promise of outdoor lit knitting projects is fulfilled.


I know you don't believe that there is still a Round-the-Bend jacket, but there is! I worked on this beauty some yesterday. I much prefer my turns on this short row sequence than the wraps and turns by the sleeve. The wrap and turn area does need some reinforcement, so I am leaving the unsatisfactory W&Ts to be strengthened and beautified in the finishing stage.




The Heart and Sole Fire Sox have grown a bit since the last post. The color is better here on my monitor than the Barbar pictures of Saturday were. Think warmth, tomorrow's high is predicted to be 18. (Shakes head.)

The Heart & Sole of the matter is

knitting appropos to St. Valentine's Day.


I've started a new pair of socks from "Fire" colorway of Red Heart's Heart & Sole with Aloe yarn. It's a light fingerling yarn, pretty fine. But I'm using my standard "0" doublepoints and things seem to be coming along OK.




The pattern I'm experimenting with is to CO 60 sts, 2x2 rib and after the top, then place a 3x3 cable on each side of the sock, approximately above the ankle bone (when it grows that long!)





Barbar stole the sock. "I'm a better model than she is and older, too,"says he!

P.S. Better pics with natural light next time, I promise.

Some progress anyway...

...in the knitting department.

Bella Coola Socks are finished!
(Click to embiggen!)




Important sock statistics:

Bella Coola Socks
Socks That Rock mediumweight 380 yards per skein, 90% skein used.
Needles = size 0 Skacel doublepoints
Pattern = Batik Stripey Socks by Bowerbird as seen on her blog and Ravelry.
Cast On Sock#1 December 22, 2008, Bind Off January 6, 2009
Cast On Sock#2 January 6, 2009, Bind Off January 29, 2009

The very best thing about these socks is that because there is a purl row every 11th row, it is extremely easy to remember where one is in the patterning and especially to match the socks, row for row.

A new sock has been cast on, which will be named Fire Sox, Sock #1.

Now the opposite in temperature... it is snowing yet again and 29 degrees. That's yet more snow coming down on top of the ice still on tree limbs and snow from earlier since neither had temperatures warm enough to melt very much. I already cleaned the front sidewalk once and put deicer in a couple spots. DH just did it again before leaving on kindy run. Roads went from 'just wet' with deicer this morning to treacherous now.
And the prognosticators tell us Monday's storm could be much worse. (Monday is February 2nd, Groundhog Day. Hey, Phil, give us an early Spring...puh-leeze?)

Pfft.

Crystal Palace

Our world is a crystal palace with an occasional branch crashing to the crunchy ground. The pictures were taken at 8 AM.


It's been raining for over twelve hours. This is not a good thing. When it started to rain, it had already been snowing and it was 23 degrees. The warm air started to override the cold air. Freezing rain is the result. Looking out the window at the bottom of the stairs, we see ice covered everything.









From the front porch, the salt spreading patterns are in the roadway and the icicles are forming on the awning.
















The lilac bushes are showing signs of Spring reawakening on their branches and are protected from the cold today by their crystal coating.


School has been cancelled for today. Considering that our road is normally one of the better kept rural roads, I can only imagine what most of the district roads are like.

The best knitting news is that Lesson #1 went to the post office yesterday morning before this mess began.

Thawing

after several weeks of way below average temperatures, we might actually see 35 today!

(Picture heavy post. Click on any photo to 'embiggen'!)

It doesn't really matter too much what the temperature is for a collie dog. Tawny just enjoys lying in the shade and in the snow. He'll take his trek around the yard, but he won't lie in the sun.





The top peak is melting faster than the snow-covered downspouts can carry the runoff. And these icicles are growing today. When I was a child the icicles actually reached the ground a couple times. The north and east roof is still totally snow covered with no icicles.



Along the River Road, the water runs through the rocks at all times of the year to drain into the Kiski River, as shown in these three shots.







Just north of the ice is this barn with its Mail Pouch tobacco ad still barely visible. It is one of the few of this Americana left around here.


And finally, a bit of knitting content!

The last three swatches for Basics, Basics, Basics Lesson #1 are blocking. Just because these are blocking doesn't mean that one or more won't be redone. What do you think?

Grumpy

Continuing the saga...Saturday morning was the coldest in 15 years with official Minus 10. Then the temperature warmed throughout the day and night to 33 this morning and currently.



This shot was taken at 10 AM...4 inches of new snow. At 1 PM there is an additional inch. Snow is to taper off sometime tonight.

We are not happy campers.

I'm not grumpy over this shot, though. This is the antique table in the living room with my reference books, lesson and current swatch.

We want green grass, warm temperatures and sunshine.

Go Steelers! What a day to play football! Here we go, Steelers, here we go!

Fibery Day

It's the coldest day in 15 years. The official temperature at Pittsburgh International was Minus 8. Windchills are from -10 to -35. The school district was actually smart to cancel classes today about 9:30 last night. Of course now everyone has to follow the school calendar and use Monday (MLK Day) as a snow day. Actually, that beats taking a day from Spring Break.



Looking out one of the upper hallway windows, we see Jack Frost at work on the window and the snowy landscape. Despite the cold we are still receiving 1-3 inches of snow per day/night. This morning we watched frozen frost falling. Frozen frost is jewel-like frost that blows like snow or mist when there is a sunny, blue sky.



Yesterday, I finished plying some gifted roving from several years ago. Because there isn't all that much of it, it dried overnight. Perhaps this vibrant, warm color will warm us this white day.

Now it's time to block some swatches....

Beginnings

Eclectic and procrastinating as I am, it has begun.



What has begun? The swatches are started for the Basics course I'm taking.

When I was studying journalism even in Junior High, I memorized the UP and AP stylebooks as well as my grammar in school;so, there were three different constructions running around my brain for whichever application I needed. When I taught secondary English, I knew five different grammars that were then being taught in elementary schools so that I could help the students who were coming into the merged district and who were totally confused as to what was happening in their courses because yet another grammar was being taught to them.




Knitting is much the same. There are no standard chart symbols. There are no standard names for the same stitch. Each person has one's own knitting styles and construction methods. That is both confusing and liberating.

Here are two versions of Swatch#1. I using Lion Brand Fishermen's Aran yarn. (The top picture is closer to the real color.) The ball band suggests a #9 needle. Knowing that I knit loosely, I first tried a #7 (really a 6.5) 16" circular. That is the finished but ends not woven in nor dressed swatch. Next I have 'resurrected' a pair of Susan Bates short 8's. This beginning swatch is the third try because it has been so long since I used straights! I am really curious how differently the swatch appears on the different needles. The ribbing already has morphed as it is on the flat swatch as opposed to how it develops in circular knitting.

Change from last Saturday

It's a Winter Wonderland right now.


Quite a difference from last Saturday's clear blue skies, isn't it?

The snow started about 5 last night as a snow mist and continued that way for hours. This morning we had about two inches and DH got the snow blower out. Poor snow blower wasn't used all last winter at all. But it worked just fine this morning. The Township came through several times and our road was bare until this snow started about half an hour ago. The radar shows this snow may well turn to freezing rain as the temperature has risen from 28 to 30.

Just an excellent day for knitting, it is.

Procrastination is Waning.

We really don't want to talk about how long these skeins have been in the making on the spinning wheel.

I finally finished these Romney cross skeins Monday night and Tuesday.

One was washed in the kitchen sink and one in the bathroom sink, same detergent. They are from the same bobbins. But they do appear to be different shades.



Weather has not been conducive for taking pictures. Lots of icing yesterday and downpours today with more icing then snow in sight.



Bella Coola Sock#1 was also finished yesterday! Sock#2 was cast on immediately!

There has been an intriguing discussion on the TKGA board on Ravelry about getting 'wonky stitches' when knitting a 1x1 rib. Lots of manipulation of yarns, needles, techniques by many are attempting to discover what is causing the misshapen stitches.

Changing weather and such

That clear blue sky yesterday? It's gone. Most of today was Winter grey and then the mist moved in, followed closely by fog. Visibility is about 1/4 mile.

So, I'd said we'd gotten a 13" TV. It's a Magnavox with an internal DVD player. The first attempt at making the DVD work was a success. I tried out The "Knitting Glossary" DVD and it was purr-fect. I was purring a bit about it, myself! Note the innovative antenna stand. It's a bottle containing white sand. Clever, no? Well, heck, the antenna won't fall over with that much weight in the bottle!

Then there's the 7-drawer Sterlite chest. Currently its abode is in the hallway behind me. But the best part is...its contents. That's an antique dresser drawer and a half of J&S 2 ply jumperweight yarn you see there! Giggle.

1st 2009 Saturday Sky

Today brought a beautiful clear sky but temperatures in the low 30's.

It ended up being an afternoon to run over to the nearest Wally World to check out the items in their circular. Sure enough, they did still have a couple 7-drawer chests and plastic Christmas tree boxes. The 7-drawer chest will be the first of 'more'. DH saw them first at Linda's and thinks they would be a perfect design feature for my yarn stash. We dragged one of each around the store while also purchasing a new 13" TV for the bedroom and then over to the Produce department for some apples, oranges and avocados.

Sockin'

We're just sockin' around lately. Here is the progress on the Bella Coola Sock#1. It's about 2/3 of the way down the foot toward the toes.

Other than that, I've been getting my bibliography listing together a bit and started on my knitting history for Basics.

Today is DH's last official day of vacation and he's been busy doing all kinds of things;so, no time to be bored! Several school districts in the area went back today. Talk about a short Christmas break!

What're ya doin'...

On this New Year's Day, I wish you a fiber-filled, energetic year complete with learning, joy and happiness.

Although I don't make a list of resolutions or goals or anything like that, I have found it intriguing that I am not the only one to feel energized as New Year approaches and sort and clean some, even before decorations are down!

This year my learning will be to finally stop procrastinating and to work on the TKGA courses. Santa brought the Basics course. I wanted this one first as it will program me for the Levels and I will be in sync with the program. We Virgos need to have a handle on things. (Go ahead, make all the Virgo jokes, I'll wait....) Yarn Elf will be working on it, too! Camp registration is the first full week of February. Ravelry makes the knitting world like a knitting group.

Still there are a couple of WIPs awaiting. The Bella Coola Sock#1 is growing. More on her later.

...better go check the sauerkraut and ribs....