We're back

Hey all - well, we made it through Ike with minimal damage. Lots of tree branches down, lost water for about 24 hrs, our power was waaaaaay funky (went out Friday at 9:30 pm, back on at 5:00 am Saturday (!), off at noon on Saturday, and then back on hopefully for good Monday night at 5:00), and the wind was driving rain under the doors as the worst of the storm came through. But all in all, we were very very lucky. The girls slept through the worst of it, and missed the pine trees in our neighbor's yard swaying like blades of grass in the breeze.

We don't have internet access at home yet, so posting will be sparse until that gets restored, but I just wanted to let anyone wondering know that we are ok. Stay tuned.

FO: Orphans

I've opted for the double dose on the last two rounds of Adrian's Fiber Club, which has left me with gobs of fiber lying around. I managed to spin up parts of two batches of fiber but had about 5 oz leftover that have been sitting in the cupboard for the last few months. This past week I finally got back to them.

Specs: 214 yds/2.4 oz of Maldives (18 micron merino) , 124 yds/3.2 oz of Verdant (70% merino/30% mohair)

Spun/plied at 10:1, both chain plied

Maldives: 14 wpi prewash, 13 wpi postwash; Verdant: 10 wpi prewash, 10 wpi postwash

Both were somewhat overplied and went through fulling finish - Maldives was balanced after finishing, Verdant was still slightly overplied.

So now I have two new skeins of stripy yarn. My plan is still to make the girls some mittens with the Maldives, lined with some commercial yarn, and I think I'll actually have enough to do hats or scarves as well.

The Verdant - this was a different experience. The first batch of Verdant I spun as laceweight. This time around I wanted to end up with something bulky weight (I think I had subconscious visions of Stephanie's Unoriginal hat), so I had to focus on spinning a thicker single then I usually do. It took a bit of work - I didn't predraft very much, just snapped the top to loosen it a bit, and the mohair made it quite sticky. So I ended up with some thick and thin bits due to drafting malfunctions. It seems to be quite a bit softer at this weight however, then as laceweight - less twist means less wirey maybe? In any event, it's now balled up in its little nest of handspun, happily waiting to be knit up for a Christmas present. As a hat, it will probably have to be lined because it's still a bit itchy. Maybe I could just go on a mitten knitting binge?

Incoming!

Ehem. So, as some of you may be aware, a big ass hurricane named Ike is currently barreling his way across the Gulf and has decided that Galveston Bay looks like a pretty nice place to come ashore. So posting over the next few days (except for tomorrow's previously written/scheduled spinning post) will be nil, given that 100 mph winds and consistent electrical service are pretty much "Matter, meet Antimatter - Kablooey!" Hopefully there will be much knitting, but the girls may not be so keen on Mama huddled in the corner knitting by the light of her headlamp while the roof flies off (Mom, I'm kidding!) (At least I'm kidding about the roof)

In fact, this morning on the way to daycare, I had the following conversation with Devil:

D: Mommy, is the storm going to come visit Daddy's office? (Ironman's place of employment closed down yesterday afternoon in anticipation of Big Ike, so he worked from home today)

P: Yes baby.

D: Mommy, is the storm going to blow our house down?

P: No sweetie it's not. But it is going to get really windy and rainy for a while.

D: (silence. Clearly she's not convinced about the house not blowing down.)

P: Besides, if it looks like it's going to be really bad, we'll leave.

D: (Considering the consequences of leaving, not realizing that we would not be bringing all of her books plus the Dora Princess adventure DVD) Um, OK.

And that was it. Here's to hoping she continues through the next 48 hours with as much equanimity. Keep your fingers crossed that Ike suddenly springs a leak or hits a patch of Artic air or something and that we all make it through in one piece.

(And if I could arrange to guarantee that my roof would survive in one piece too, that would be great).

See you on the other side.

Let this be a lesson to me

Not to pack up stuff for the following day after a couple glasses of wine.

Last night was the first meeting of the year for my neighborhood Mom's Club, which meant lots of women + no kids + wine and chocolate = whee! After said meeting I went home and packed up my work clothes for today since my optimistic plan was to run to the pool, get in my "long" swim, and head to work straight from there.

Well, I made it out of bed and stumbled my way to the pool, and managed not to drown. Got my clothes, showered, went to get dressed and realized that I had packed a white shirt. And a dark red bra.

Sigh.

If it was a black bra, at least I could maybe argue that I was making some kind of psuedo-Goth-Riot Grrrl statement (as ridiculous as that may be in TX). As it is...thankfully it's a fairly substantial white shirt, so unless someone is staring at my boobs (or it rains suddenly, and me without my umbrella), I should manage to make it through the day with my dignity more or less intact.

Maybe.

Old friends

My parents are embarking on a major construction project at their place in Maine, so my mother has been going to town on the piles of Extremely Important Crap that my brother and I have been storing under their roof. She came across an old trunk of mine with a lock on it. Once we had determined that I had no clue as to the whereabouts of the key to said lock, we decided she had free rein to cut off the lock and see what was inside. Of course she promptly went back to Boston and found the key, so hacksaws were not called in to salvage the situation.

Inside the trunk she found these:

I knit these two sweaters almost twenty years ago when I was in college (and the fact that parts of college were almost twenty years ago totally gives me the heebie jeebies). The one on the top is a guernsey (I'm 95% sure it's Penny Straker's Staithes Gansey - Rav link). The yarn is some gorgeous tweedy teal worsted weight that we bought at the Blue Hill Fair one summer when I was in college and I went back to school and knit it up.

The bottom sweater is my first Aran, from a Candide pattern that I bought in 1991, if I remember correctly. Anyway, a long time ago. It's huge - probable 50 inches across in the chest, and I wore it as a winter jacket through most of college. Which, given that I went to college in western MA, belies the intelligence that presumably got me in to said school, but what can you do.

I have been wondering where these two sweaters were hiding for quite a while now. I don't think I've seen them since I finished grad school in 2000, and they are in remarkably good condition for having been stuffed in a trunk and stuck in a barn for 8 years. I certainly don't have any reason to wear them right now, but I'm glad I have them back. In fact, they've inspired me to start a new cable project.

I can't justify wool sweaters for Houston "winters", but a wool vest? That I can definitely get behind.