Little This, Little That

Here's a brief review of activities Chez SABLE.

On Monday we got our car back from the repair shop. It appears that they have really, finally, definitively fixed that problem. Of course, if we had known two months ago just how deeply we would be in to resolve it, we might have chosen to donate it to a charity and cut our losses. Even after all the credits we got from them for work that didn't fix the problem, we still spent $3000 keeping that car running. Just for giggles, I looked at some other 1997 Windstars on Craigslist. Now, most have twice as many miles on them as ours, but they also were asking less than $2K for those cars. Hmm. So, all my readers with stalling cars, check the blue book on the car before you go to the garage! I have a sense of guarded optimism about this car now. I kind of hope it might go another 60,000 miles without too much ongoing expense.

In other news, Mr. SABLE has been settling into his self-employed lifestyle. He prefers that term to unemployed. He has a few prospects that might lead to a job offer, but not much to do about them in the short run.


Over the weekend, Mr. SABLE and I made hot dilly beans. My SIL makes these every year and we've been given an occasional jar or two here and there, but not nearly enough to keep me happy. I love these things! It finally dawned on me that there was no reason we couldn't just make our own. The supermarket had pitiful unappealing beans for several trips while I was getting excited about this plan. Then they had no beans! Finally, I went in on Saturday and they had restocked with fresh, plump, wonderful looking beans, so I bought a big bag. We made 8 pints, though a few were on the scant side. Haven't tasted them yet, because we're supposed to let them sit at least 2 weeks. Another 10 days! Can I wait that long?


Today I replaced a zipper in a lightweight jacket of the Little Emperor's. I bought this in the spring at a big-box store and when the zipper broke, debated about whether or not I should bother fixing it. He does really love it and it's not that old. The replacement zipper was under $4, so not an expensive repair. I decided on the quick'n'dirty method outlined in the Tightwad Gazette books. Rather than actually ripping out the stitches that held in the old zipper and fitting the new one in between the lining and the shell, I just cut the teeth off the old one, then sewed the replacement to the back of the opening. It's not elegant, but it does the trick. The jacket is no longer reversible, but he only wore it nylon-side-out anyway. My guess is that he will outgrow it by spring.

Now that I've done this one, I'm eyeballing the collection of winter parkas with broken zippers that Owen left in his wake.


Also today, I cast on and started a pair of slipper clogs for Mr. SABLE. He gets very cold feet sitting around in the winter. He doesn't like to wear shoes inside because his feet are already REALLY big: size 13.5. I have some very thick leather I plan to use to make soles for these. Stay tuned.


And finally, here are some milkweed pods.

The Knitting

This is the second attempt at a new idea I'm playing with. I bought this lovely yarn at Miss Vicky's Yarn Cafe in Baraboo when all the Alt Knitting Campers decided to drop in on her. It's Di Vé Autunno, 100% Merino. A very soft single that I bet will pill like a demon, but will feel so nice along the way. I'm trying a few variations on the basic top-down raglan cardigan, but it means doing all the thinking up front. When you make a sweater from the bottom, you can usually just cast on and go. But this time I've got some fiddly short row shaping and a sloped raglan, with a somewhat wider-than-usual top of the sleeve section, and maybe a variation on the slope of the front raglan line. This is attempt #2, and I know I need at least one more. The good thing is that I learn something new on each attempt.

I think one of the main differences between knitting designers and knitters in general is that the designers are the ones who get an idea and keep trying until they get it right. The idea doesn't have to be complex or amazing. There's nothing wrong with being a knitter who doesn't design (there better not be: we depend on them to buy our patterns!). Some folks would rather not take something out and redo it five times, adjusting numbers and needle sizes a bit each time. And that's perfectly fine. Some of us, though, just can't help ourselves.


And this is a teaser photo. The project will be Knitcircus #5, released Feb 1 or so. You just have to wait.

Automotive Woes

I feel like I have Munchausen's By Proxy, Automotive Variant. One of our cars is back at the shop for more of the same symptoms. Poor Larry (our service guy). I think he never wants to hear from me again.

The history
A while back, my husband noticed that the car he usually drives was not behaving well. It wanted to stall when coming to a stop or when starting from a stop. We went to our local Ford place and they diagnosed some bad sensors and some tune-up kind of stuff. When we got it back, it seemed to run a little peppier than it had, but was still stalling when we tried to put it in gear. Price of the first repair: around $840.

Back to the Ford dealership. Larry phoned with the news that it's probably transmission related, probably the torque converter. They needed to pull the transmission to really know for sure, and then, either way, it would be ready to work on. Larry had spoken with the service manager and they credited the $800+ dollars from our earlier repair to that new repair. Now Larry was my hero because I never had to ask for this consideration. He also got us a sweet little "no-cost rental" (I do love a bureaucratic oxymoron) for the week we were without our car. Our cost (after credit) of repair #2: around $1000.

But, the car still stalled. The symptom had changed a bit. Now it stalled only when fully warmed up and coming to a stop. Still, this was not good. Then, Monday morning, I drove the Little Emperor to school in that car. After I dropped him and was starting home, the brakes went to the floor. Yes, the car stopped. But I thought for a scary moment or two it might not. Got back the 4 blocks home, driving oh so very carefully, and called my buddy Larry again. Now, I think he really really really did not want to hear from me again. I arrange a tow for the car to the dealership. Larry tells me that the brake line has corroded. No real surprise. This is a 1997 Ford Windstar and we live in slush and salt city 5 months of the year. $340 to fix that before they can safely do the test drive to find out the issue with the stalling. Well, I still think we've come this far, so may as well keep trying to keep this vehicle on the road another couple years.

Larry got back to me yesterday and told me it's a valve in the valve body, part of the transmission, which is sticking when it's warmed up. And he told me that if they had realized that when they had the transmission all apart last time, they would have done that at the same time. So, in view of that, they'll do the labor for free on this one. Well, that was the good news. The bad news is the part (valve body) costs $895. And they have to order it. And we'll be without the car for a while.

Larry asked me if we needed another "no cost rental" car this time. I told him No, now that my husband's out of work, we really can get by with one. Just to really pile on my serving of Woe Cake. (If you don't know what Woe Cake is, you haven't been lurking on the Ravelry Rubberneckers.)

So yeah, Mr. SABLE's first day of unemployment, yesterday, went much better than his last few days of employment did. But he's muttering about going to art school and moving to northern Maine to pursue a career making art glass. I guess I can herd sheep and we'll eat stone soup I'll cook on a woodstove. Now I'm being a bit snide. After all, when you've given half your soul to a soul-sucking corporation for 12 years and been tossed out like yesterday's newspaper in the recycling, it's normal to fantasize about a very different lifestyle. Oh, and yesterday? He got his first e-mail from someone trying to make sense of the mess that sacking a whole department leaves behind, asking for help with a big project. Mr. SABLE told him that he can't help, doesn't have any of those files, and the poor successor should check with the Pointy Haired Boss if he has any more questions. I expect this won't be the last desperate email he'll get from folks over there.

Review: E-book Christmas Stockings

Christmas Stockings
7 Classic Holiday Treasures to Knit
Edited by Elaine Lipson
Intereweave Press

Contributors
Linda Ligon
Lynn Gates
Nancy Bush
Susan Strawn Bailey
Dee Lockwood
Ron Schweitzer
Candace Eisner Strick
Ordering information here

E-books and patterns are a great innovation for knitters, designers, and publishers. While I will always love the substance of a physical book, the handiness of instantly downloaded pdfs cannot be denied. The customer can buy the book at any time, even at midnight on a weeknight, and cast on right away. The designer can self-publish with much less overhead than conventional printing demands: no inventory, no upfront costs for large print runs, and the ability to instantly make corrections in files if necessary. Many of those same advantages carry over for the established publisher. It suddenly becomes possible to envision a world in which a book need never go out of print.

It’s no surprise that Interweave Press is jumping into this market. They have been steadily adding to their catalog of down-loadable individual patterns over the last year and now are branching into e-books. Christmas Stockings contains 7 of the most popular patterns from the original 2001 print book of the same title. (The original contained 18 patterns.) A book like this, with a strong seasonal emphasis, is a great choice for pdf download sales. If you start now, you might make all 7 stockings by late December!

At $14.95 for the pdf download, the price is reasonable, especially considering the book also contains the supporting technical information that Interweave includes in print books: illustrations of general knitting techniques, appendices of methods and materials, and sources for the yarns.

The patterns represent a range of techniques, from Fair Isle to cables, lace to Bavarian twisted stitches. The skills required range from basic to advanced-intermediate. The patterns offer generic yarn recommendations, i.e. a class of yarn with yardage per 50 or 100 grams, fiber blend, and any particulars about the original yarn that would affect substitution choice.

Above all else, though, these look like fun projects. They’re the kind of projects that are enjoyable for the knitter and likely to be appreciated by the recipient. Christmas stockings offer all the fun of socks with two great advantages: 1. they are often worked at a bigger gauge, and 2. you only need to make one of them!

Happy knitting.

Snapshots of the Recent Past

None of these photos were taken by me.


My husband has taken to petting bumblebees. This one was particularly mellow.


This is the famous "The Cake is a Lie" cake, from the game Portal, baked and decorated by Owen. It was not a lie. Except I photoshopped the chocolate shavings on the side of the cake, because it's very very hard to apply chocolate shavings to the side of a cake. So, kind of a lie.


Last Saturday night, on my way to bed, I noticed that one of poor Ossie's eyes looked a little funny. Sunday morning it was clear to me that we had to deal with it that day. Mr. SABLE took him to the Emergency Vet Clinic. One day of eye ointment and an Elizabethan Collar (that's the official name for cone-heads), and he was on the mend. This picture was taken on Sunday afternoon.


And this is a happy image.
The Little Emperor had one or two falls last season, trying to master the bike. He wasn't badly hurt, but he sure wasn't eager to keep trying. Over a year later he finally decided it was time. He had a few small spills, mostly when cornering too sharply, but overall, it's fine. He loves his bike now and rides endlessly around our cul-de-sac.

In Other News
Not much to show on the knitting front. Knitting for publication sure does cut into the blogable projects, doesn't it? I also tried a few versions of an experimental project I thought would make a good gift, but it was kind of flawed. Back to the drawing board on that one. And I can't post about it because the would-be giftee reads the blog.

Mr. SABLE is counting down to the end of his employment. This has been a very hard time for him, and the rest of us. Because he's a private kind of guy, I don't want to say too much, but I will say that this summer has been fraught with complicated emotions, including fear about the future and bitterness about some of the way things were handled at the corporate level in the recent past. Our money situation will be ok for at least several months if it comes to that. Yesterday we signed up for a reasonably-priced insurance plan to cover this time. We opted for a very high deductible and figured our main concern was that we be ready for a medical catastrophe over the next six months. The COBRA plan through his work would have run over $1000 a month for the family. He found a plan through Blue Cross/Blue Shield that was about $140 a month, but really would only be useful if something very bad happens.

Onto happier stuff: Knitcircus #4 has been shipped from the printer. Yay! They are scheduled to arrive here on the 30th. I hope they get here a day or two early. It's very hard to wait.

Non-knitting FO!

Over the last couple of days I finished putting the binding on Owen's quilt. I had enough of the dark blue sashing fabric for binding on the two long edges, but not enough to do the ends. "No problem," I thought, "I'll just pop back over to Hancock Fabrics and pick up some more." Ha! I ended up with a different dark blue, in a different 100% cotton fabric. But whatever, it's done.


While I was taking pictures, I was reminded of my husband's grad school days, when pictures like this one occupied much of his time. (I just lifted that one off someone's website, not sure whose proteins are being run through that column!)

I briefly considered taking a picture of Owen's old favorite comforter, but thought better of it. In 1980, when I moved into my first apartment in college, my apartment mates and I took over the lease of a bunch of students who were leaving early. They left a bunch of crap in there, and because it wasn't a landlord-approved transition, there was no official clean out. Among the items were a couple of ugly 70s comforters. They were quite dirty and unappealing even then. I took them to the laundromat (the one on 53rd and Ellis with lots of huge front loaders) and washed them and used the better one until it fell apart. The uglier one, I kept in the car and took camping etc. After Owen moved into his first real bed, somehow he ended up in possession of it. I figured it would be temporary. As it turns out, it became the favorite comfort-object that he moved on to, after the baby blankies. Now, it is just about disintegrating. It has been washed so much and is so threadbare, that I think only molecular memory is holding it together. It definitely needs another washing now, but I don't dare. Owen tells me that he won't be parting with the old one, just because the new quilt is done. That's ok. As long as it stays in his room.

Deep Breath

Last night we uploaded our Knitcircus #4 files to the printer, so that's done. Now we wait about 2 weeks and then we have the 1000 copies to mail out and deliver to the LYSs.

So, on to other stuff.
I have a couple stealth projects in the works for Knitcircus #5, to be released in February '09. And some other ideas for stuff that I'll be able to show'n'tell about, once I get the "show" part done.



Meanwhile, the kids are home for a teacher service day!! Can you believe it? We had one partial week of school, one normal full week, and now, a day off.

Mr. SABLE has had some nibbles on his job search. He did get one very low offer (a federal agency job for which he wasn't exactly a highly-qualified candidate) and some biotech prospects for this week. He's been carrying a lot of stress and it's taking a toll on the rest of us, but I hope it will resolve soon. The best possible outcome would be for him to line up a new job that starts some time after mid-October. Then he'd get a nice long break before starting, and it would involve some school days, which would be nice.



Our weather here is just about perfect today: high in the low 70s and a bit breezy, very sunny. I'm amazed at how perfectly the weather correlates with the nominal season. We're going along through August: hot hot hot and humid. Then BAM, Sept comes and it's like the weather gods got the memo. The temperature and humidity drop (well, except for those two days it rained, but we did need that) and it's instant fall.

Here are some random photos taken over the last month or so.

More about Knitcircus

I've been formatting until I'm cross-eyed! Yowza. But I'm excited about the upcoming Issue #4 of Knitcircus. Jaala and I hope to email it to the lovely and talented Beth tomorrow afternoon/evening for a fine-tooth-comb editing. She's really good at that! She knows when we have a sneaky extra space to delete, finds all those hyphens that should be em-dashes, knows when to bold , when to italicize, and remembers all the formatting things that we set up on p.3 that are being done differently on p 38. After Beth sends back all the big and little things she finds, then we do a final check for any formatting problems that the printer won't like. Then, make the huge mega-file pdf (bigger than my first hard disc!) and off it goes to Texas. Then we wait seven business days for turnaround and about 4 more business days for shipping, and boxes will appear.

In Other News
We have been in the throes of a full-fledged machine conspiracy Chez SABLE. The focus of this one is cars and computers. Must be C is the letter of the week, eh? Both our vehicles have required very expensive repairs and maintenance of the mandatory kind. You know, the "Don't drive until you fix this" kind of stuff. The computer issues have been more annoying than expensive. Owen's laptop has gone in twice for a backlight issue (under Apple Care warranty) and my mouse needed replacing. Mr. SABLE found his PC had over 365 viruses!!! He thinks he got them all, but they were seriously messing with things over there.

The kids are settling into their school routines, which is a blessing. So far, so good.

I haven't knit at all in a week or so. I've just been plugging away at the 'zine. I'm eager to get back into it.

Sliding Into Home

We're in the big-push stretch of Knitcircus Issue #4. It's very exciting and I think we have a very strong issue. We plan to have this available to ship October 1. (If your local yarn shop doesn't carry it, ask them to think about it!)

Here's a little preview of some of the goodies you'll find inside:












There's more to come!

Click on through and pre-order your copy today!
Knitcircus.com

I Sense a Theme Here...

Kathy, from Milwaukee came over to Last Saturday Knitting with her friend Lynne. Kathy wanted to give me this perfectly apropos gift that she bought for me as a "Thank you" for organizing the Alt Knitting Camp aka Gourmet S'mores Camp. Now, when I see the WienerMobile in my neighborhood, I'll be ready!

Last Saturday Knitting was a gas, as usual. We had just about the largest gathering yet! It was all the usual suspects, only all of us were there. Usually, we top out around 6 knitters, but this time we had 10, plus Owen! Thankfully, the nice young man who works weekends seems happy to have us there.

I've been spinning on the Mixed Berries yarn and working on the plain grey knitting project. And of course, counting down the seconds until school starts tomorrow (for the little guy) and Wednesday (for Owen). And I've been sitting around on the porch, under the fan, waiting for this little heat wave to pass. Tomorrow will be steamy again, then nice cooler weather blows in. Ah! True autumn can't be far behind, right?

Tiger Swallowtail

What's summer without gratuitous butterfly pics?


There are three of these working over the butterfly bush in our yard right now.

I saw a hummingbird earlier out there this morning, too. We haven't had many of those this summer.

Owen's Quilt: Quilted!

I picked up Owen's quilt from Franco's yesterday. I'd say $60 was a bargain to jump past all the hours of quilting (even by machine) and move right to putting on the edging. I'll probably get to that after the school year starts, when I hope life settles down a bit around here.

Mixed Berries Yarn!

After a recent frustration with some alpaca, I wanted to spin something fast, easy, and fun.

One ply came from this:


I took some white wool and mohair from the giant Brown Sheep mill ends batch I bought a while back and blended with some red and blue generic wool I got at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool last year, plus a bit of red silk thread from sari-silk ends.


The other singles came from this batch I bought last winter at The Sow's Ear.

All in all a very fast fun fiber to spin: wooly and smooshy. I don't have any specs on the finished skein, but it seems like a good fingering weight to me and feels light as air.

I have enough of all the parts to make a whole lot more of this.

In Other News
I saw the Wiener Mobile again last night, parked in the same place as last time, on a side street about a block from my house. Either someone takes the work car home or has a honey on the side. Hmmm.

Project Updates

Taking my cue from Bezzie (whose rant here on the so-called "green" reusable grocery bags got me thinking), I made these two cloth bags yesterday. I had bought a small stack of the green pseudo-cloth bags from my supermarket last winter, at 75 cents each. Although they stand up to more use than a paper bag, they have started to self-destruct. Rather than replace them with more of the same, I decided to put some stashed fabric to use. I bought the fabric at a thrift shop in Quincy IL over a year ago, thinking it would be nice for something. I just didn't know what. I have enough fabric to make at least 4 more bags this size, which is a bit smaller than a standard paper grocery bag. I need to buy more nylon webbing, though.

I've been working on turning a few older projects into patterns for the fall Knitcircus. We plan to have it available for purchase by Oct 1. I'm also working on a new project for that, but might not finish in time. That's ok. We can use it in Winter, and we've had great submissions, so we have enough good material for fall.

In Other News
We're counting down to the beginning of the school year. The little guy starts second grade on Tuesday, Sept 2, and Owen starts 8th grade on Wednesday the 3rd. We're having all kinds of behavioral issues with the little guy, but I have to say, Owen has suddenly crossed into a new mature, mellow version of himself. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this isn't just a phase for him. I never would have believed that there would be a time when I would call Owen "mellow".

I did send Owen's quilt out to be machine quilted at the local place. I have no idea what I'll get back, but it should be coming soon. They charge about $65 for a twin size, and have stock patterns that their machine does. I'll still need to put edging on when I get it back, I think. For local folks, this is a funny little building on Regent Street, probably a survivor of the great Greenbush Urban Renewal of the 1960s.

We're still in limbo on Mr. SABLE's job front. He had a chat with a VP at a small start-up last week. He felt very positive about that and it could lead to a job offer soon. He's also encouraged that if he has to do free-lance stuff for a while, there are a lot of people in town who can throw him some work. The downside to that plan is health insurance, but it would be income. Time will tell. Stay tuned.

I hope to see all my local buddies at Last Saturday Knitting on the 30th!

Late Summer Blahs

I'm just slogging along here, feeling a bit groggy and sinus-y. The kids' school registration days are tomorrow and Thursday. The little guy is systematically working his way through all the Star Wars movies on DVD and I'm just letting him. It gives me a bit of peace and time to put two thoughts together.

I tried to spin a bit of some alpaca roving I bought at the Alpaca Festival in the spring. It was a disappointment, because there's a lot of very short sections, like second cuts, in this roving. Very frustrating and leading to a lot of bad spinning. I might need to just put it aside and work on something fun.

I have a knitting project in progress, but it's slated to appear in fall Knitcircus if I finish in time, winter if not. Stay tuned for photos on that. The project is a solid grey one, though, and I think I need a shot of color to liven me up when I finish it.

I guess we're all just in the post-vacation recovery mode. Couple that with the underlying anxiety about Mr. SABLE's future employment, plus a big car repair bill, I can say that our house is in a bit of a funk.

Vacation Wrap-Up

August 2: We set out from home. We began looking for lodging on the far western fringes of the greater Cleveland area. No lodging. We tried at least 15 hotels over 4 major intersections. Eventually were told there was a Twins Convention in Twinsburg OH and that there was no lodging until Pennsylvania. So we pressed on to the Pittsburgh Area. We were thrilled to get a room at a Comfort Inn near the airport at about 1 a.m. While I was booking the room a young woman, looking exhausted, came in and wondered, barely daring to hope, if there were rooms. I asked her if she, too, had been traveling across Ohio. Yes indeed.

The next night we stayed with my sister and her family in their funky old house in Pittsburgh.

We had a hard time getting the Little Emperor to sit for a family picture. Kate's husband was the most consistently photogenic of all of us.

From there, we drove on to Treman State Park near Ithaca NY. The kids loved swimming in a natural pool and under the waterfall.


Owen and I hiked down the gorge, which was still a bit strenuous because sometimes you have to go up to go down. We showed Owen the house we lived in when he was born. It was a short stay and went pretty well. Our second night was rainy, so we had to pack up wet camping stuff to drive to NH.

On to New Hampshire where we saw my folks and swam at our favorite top-secret pond. My mom and I went to the League of NH Craftsmen annual fair. There were a few truly remarkable artists, a lot of work that looks like all the others, and a few real duds. But fun to look.

August 10: on to Quebec.
Not long after we crossed the border, a seagull committed suicide on our windshield. It was a terrifying moment, but neither humans nor van suffered any damage.

We stayed at Chateau de la Terrasse, the middle building in this image:

The structure to the right is the US Consulate.








A ship on the St. Lawrence at dusk.


Benches on the boardwalk


Petit Champlain, as viewed from the Terrasse Dufferin.


On our way to the Old Port area

Near the Old Port, we explored the Ephemeral Gardens, an interesting sort of art space constructed for the 400th anniversary. This mirrored graffiti house was one part of it:


Then we went to the farmers market to buy some veggies and cheese. While there, we had crepes, prepared by a nice woman and her two daughters.


Cannons are just play equipment in Quebec nowadays.


I just really liked this house.

During a light rain, I was knitting on the little front balcony of the hotel. Two different American tourists stopped to take my picture! And then, a wild looking older man stopped and stared for several long moments. Eventually, he told me that I reminded him of his mother knitting back in Ireland. Hmm.

We had some very dramatic clouds in Quebec. Indeed, there was a tornado someplace in the province that day! It rained on and off, and we watched the lightening over the evening sky in Levis across the St. Lawrence.

Long Drive Home

Near Ottawa, we saw this Really Big Thing on the highway.
We stayed in Pembroke Ontario.

Upper Peninsula, Manistique MI

Manistique in da Moonlight

Somewhere between Manistique MI and Green Bay WI, we took a little break at a wayside park. The Little Emperor dove right into the sand.




Finally, on August 15th, Home Sweet Home.

Far From Home

We've suffered through a dearth of lodging in eastern Ohio, stayed with my sister and her family in Pittsburgh, camped a couple nights in Ithaca NY, stayed with my folks four nights in NH, and now, we're in Quebec City for three nights. It's the four hundredth anniversary of the founding, so the city is a mad-house. But beautiful as ever. Then we high-tail it back across Canada, through Sault Ste. Marie, and home.

More details and photos to follow when we're home.

Oh, and we saw the Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile again! Didn't get a pic, but it was in easter NY state. Maybe it's stalking us?

Neighborhood sighting

It's not every day a person sees the Oscar Mayer WienerMobile parked a block from her house. On a residential street. With nothing going on. In front of a mid-'60s ranch house. Very mysterious.