Knitting Cybrarian

And how was YOUR Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving day I got up around 5:30am.  Yup, you read that correctly.  5:30am.  Busy day was ahead.  Here's the brief recap:

• played organ for 9am church service -- had to get up early to practice at home, then get to church early and practice
• Also got up early to take bread dough out of fridge to warm up
• Upon return from church, I made out rolls, prepared sweet potatoes to bake, prepared sweet potatoes to boil for casserole, peeled potatoes and boiled them for mashed potatoes, baked rolls, made crumb crust and topping for apple pie, sliced apples for pie, cooked green beans (in microwave), got out pickles, olives for relish tray, etc. etc.  You get the idea.  We had one guest, but had a fair amount of food.  And on Wednesday night I fixed cranberry salad (the one with cranberries, sugar, a whole orange and pecans) as well as mixed up the bread dough to rise in the fridge.
• Whew.
• It was a lovely lunch without being TOO much food.  Thankfully.  I made a half recipe of the casserole and cranberry salad so we wouldn't be eating those for a whole week.  I love those dishes, but they lose their appeal on day 5 of leftovers.
• Knitting.  Finished the hat for the baby's older brother and finished the 2nd baby mitt.  Photos to come.  Really and truly.

  Completed Wooly Stripes hat 
  Originally uploaded by lauragayle.

  Baby hat and mitts 
  Originally uploaded by lauragayle.
• Have cast on a hat for another child.   Just call me the hat knitter these days.

Speaking of hat knitting... I went to the DMV on Wednesday to get plates for Lil' Red and pay the dreaded Missouri Sales Tax.  I try to take some knitting everywhere these days, in case there's a line.  I brought a hat I had cast on and knitted about 2 inches of the rib and had knitted one round of the stockinette.  Good thing, because there was a looooooong line of people.  Loooooong.  It was so long that some folks who opened the door saw the line and promptly left.  That's how long it was.  So, I pulled out my knitting.  And knitted.  And chatted with people.  And knitted.  Folks in line watched me knit.  Children watched me knit.  People joked that if I finished the hat before I got to the front of the line, we'd all been there too long.  How much did I get done?  I knit about 2.5 inches on that hat while in line.

  What I did in line at the DMV. 
  Originally uploaded by lauragayle.

Who says you waste time standing in line?

Oh, and how's this for a brain-twister?  I had personalized plates for Big Blue.  I couldn't transfer those exact plates to Lil' Red because the original plates were coded for a truck.  So, I have regular MO plates and today I'm sending in my application to get new personalized plates (with the same personalization) for Lil' Red.  And must send in the old personalized plates.

And here I thought a personalized plate was a personalized plate.  Silly little me. 

Today her Highness had to wake us up around 5:30am.  Poor thing is so confused -- she usually figures out the weekend days and doesn't get us up so early.  But the last few days haven't been as usual.  I gave up and got up.  Made coffee and homemade blueberry muffins.

Her Highness is now sleeping on the bed.  Little traitor.

And later today, I'm working at the Studio.  If it's anything like last week, we'll be busy.

More on the weird

PlazaJen tagged me for this meme.  So now you get to read about how weird I can be.

The Guidelines: List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets. Tag 5 friends and list them. Then, those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people. Don't forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog!

1. I check to make sure I have my keys at least 3 times before I leave home, leave the office, shut the car door, etc.  It's one of my habits that borders on OCD.
2. Portia (our kitty) likes to lick my head in the night, giving me her scent AND a lovely hairstyle.  I wake for a few moments and promptly go back to sleep when she does this.  (could that count as two weird things?)
3. I wear black every day-- usually black pants or a black skirt.
4. Although I love computer programs, I still like making lists and crossing out completed items using paper and pen/pencil.
5. I rarely eat raw tomatoes, but love cooked tomato items like ketchup, spaghetti sauce.

Mosker, Suzanne, Carl, Squigs, and Jenny -- your turn!

Duh

I decided to use a free knitting pattern from the net.  I'm knitting a belated baby present, but thankfully the baby is four months old.  Time for a new hat and baby mitts, right?

I had a number of duh! moments with this.  Let's start out with how I converted the pattern.  The pattern called for flat knitting and I wanted to do circs.  I wanted to avoid seaming.  So I reduced the cast on by two stitches (to take away the stitches needed for the seam).  Fine.  After knitting the ribbing, I decided to increase one at the end of each needle (that would be adding 6 stitches) to allow for a little more room for small fists.  Did that.

Knitted up in stockinette, then paused to find out how long the little one's hand is from base of palm to longest fingertip.  I realize babies seldom have hands outstretched, but it should be big enough that he can do so.  Resumed stockinette.  But came to the decrease.  The pattern called for all knit two together decreases, which I thought a  little strange even in flat knitting.  So, I recalculated the number of stitches between decreases and knitted away.  When I finished, the sad little mitt looked like the kid's hand must be a soft-serve cone -- swirled.

I ripped.  And fussed at myself.  However, I came up with a lovely end result.  Here's the pattern (and I changed enough from the free problem pattern to not cause a problem).

I used Rowan Yarns Classic Cashsoft Aran, 1 skein, size 7 US double point needles.

Cast on 30 stitches, join in the round, taking care not to twist stitches.
Knit in a K1 P1 ribbing for two inches.
Next round, increase six stitches (I did this by doing a make one at each end of the three needles - went from 10 to 12 stitches on each needle)
Next rounds, knit in stockinette stitch for about 3 inches, or until the length from the base of the baby's palm to the tip of the longest finger (or the first joint of that finger).
Decrease rounds:
SSK, K16, K2Tog, SSK, K16, K2Tog
then
SSK, K15, K2Tog, SSK, K15, K2Tog
and so on until 8 stitches total are left.
Arrange onto two needles and graft (Kitchener) edges together.

Beauteous and even!  And NO THUMBS!

R-e-l-a-x

Or at least try to.  I'm taking a couple of days off before the Thanksgiving holiday.  I have work to do (catching up on Faculty Senate stuff), practicing to do (playing organ at the 9am Thanksgiving Day service at church), cooking/baking to do, and knitting to finish up.

Right now I have brownies in the oven.  One of Joel's colleagues requested (and paid for!) my brownies for her Thanksgiving celebration.  Even sent the pan home with Joel.  Yup, got up at 5:30am on my day off to bake these.  I see an afternoon nap in my future.

Hmmm.  Did I say relax?

Weird dreams

I have weird dreams.  Really weird.  Vivid, vibrant, you wake up and could-swear-it-happened,-but-it's-too-strange dreams.  Last night, my dreams starred:

• Barry Manilow, who thought I was just the nicest person and didn't know music librarians exist, much less entertaining, charming music librarians.
• A friend -- she was taking modern dance lessons and telling me where to buy shoes and appropriate body wear and what to do with my shoe soles.  This is a friend who in real life would NEVER take dance lessons.

I'm sure there's more.  Thankfully I've forgotten the rest of last night's dreams by now.  I also have recurring dreams -- I'm sure the theme will come back to me later today (when I'm in some meeting and cannot write down what it was because I'll be looking at theory and numbers and pondering practical and political considerations).

Work, sing, knit

That's what I've done this week.  We've had a number of librarian candidates in the past few weeks, so having two days without candidates = getting work done!  I finished the lovely AbFab afghan Sunday night (and yes, I'll get photos up soon), and have been knitting on a couple of other things since.  And choir rehearsal kept me above the staff tonight.  I really should have stood up the entire rehearsal (easier to sing high when standing and using good vocal technique), but I didn't.  I'm paying for that because I'm more tired than usual.

Very windy and cool tonight.  I'm surprised the fireplace damper hasn't opened!

WOW! Mooooo

My Moo cards came in today.  They are sooo nifty!  Photos to come!

I voted...

  ballot06 
  Originally uploaded by lauragayle.

did you?

Dad's ribbons

  octtarts 011 
  Originally uploaded by lauragayle.

Mosker, can you ID these ribbons from Dad's Army days (Korean War)?

SCARWAF

  octtarts 009 
  Originally uploaded by lauragayle.

Dad's SCARWAF pin from Korean War days.