Kate's Perspective

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Monday, July 25, 2005

Shortly after dropping off my quilt at the fair Friday evening, I realized I had forgotten to include the hanging hardware. John graciously agreed to deliver it Saturday morning, and when he did he spied a quilt in my category that featured multiple Uncle Sams waving 3-dimensional American flags. Uh-oh. (C'mon, Uncle Sam in July with the corn as high as your eye?? A shoo-in.)

This evening we went to the fair to get the official results (finally!). The categories are not hung together in groups, but interspersed throughout the room. We wandered around the exhibit hall, overwhelmed by fresh flowers, beautiful produce, knitted and sewn garments, lego sculptures, and on and on. And then I spotted my quilt, and I got second place! Woo-hoo! Sure enough, Uncle Sam had won first. I feel no shame in losing to Uncle Sam at the county fair, let me tell you.

Oddly, it was not until I was riding home that I realized I never saw third place, or any other wall-hangings. Perhaps my second place was also last place?

Who cares! I'm going to collect my $7 prize on Thursday and blow it all on a sno-cone and a ride on the ferris wheel. Thanks for all your nice comments and support. I talked my cousin Dina into entering her lemon meringue pie in the baked goods contest, and she took 1st prize in her category. What are you waiting for? Go out and enter your local fair!

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That blue-ribbon muppet scarf was knit by a kid, btw.

posted at 11:13 PM # (9) comments

Friday, July 22, 2005

Pre-Fair Jitters

Today's the day I take my little quilt to the fair to be judged. By strangers. In the company of many other's personal masterpieces. I no longer feel so certain that my quilt is any good, and I'm a little embarrassed to subject it to public scrutiny. But I think this is just pre-fair jitters, and I have already committed myself to this folly! Quilters are pretty nice folks, after all. I'll keep you posted!

posted at 12:39 PM # (4) comments

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

The Mom Sash

Coming back from vacation is just as tough a transition as it was when I had a paying job. I was surprised to discover this, since while on vacation I did pretty much exactly the same stuff as I do at home: feed, nap, clothe baby; feed, nap, clothe self; entertain clean, fed baby and clean, fed self. The difference was I did not spend any time internetting or tivoing, and I had a full-time, highly-qualified baby-care associate. I ended up working the same amount at basic survival tasks, but I had good human companionship all day. Why can't home be like that? I think it would be great if men and women could stay home together with their kids-- if not full-time, at least 4 days out of 7.

I did do a lot more planning before this trip than I've had to in the past. I'm usually thinking about packing, etc, for about a week before take-off, but I rarely do any packing until the night before. This is stressful, but before I've only had myself to worry about or to blame. This time, I wanted to eliminate the annual menu-planning debate in the aisles of a Canadian grocery store 2 hours into a 3-hour drive, and I wanted to be sure we only ate fish and fries when we wanted to, and not because the only other food available was grape nuts and individually-wrapped cheese food slices.

Another big incentive was watching my mom's departure for a 3-week vacation in France just 2 weeks before we left town. She was still (still? perhaps I should say starting to) packing 30 minutes before I was supposed to drive her to the airport, and then she couldn't reach me by cell phone to tell me she was ready so she panicked and started off alone before I managed to track her down and get her to pick me up. Once I actually got her safely to the airport, I had to go home and pay a stack of bills on her behalf because she hadn't allowed an extra 30 minutes to finish them herself.

This example put the fear of God in me, and I had one of those "I don't want to be like my mother!" moments, so within minutes I had a legal pad and a 5-category list entitled "Newfie Vacation 2005". (Sorry, Mom! You know I love you! And that's what families are for-- helping each other through the rough patches.) Over the next two weeks I wrote down every big inspiration and every little item that crossed my mind-- baby monitor, toilet paper, thermometer-- and planned a daily menu with corresponding grocery list. I made off-site airport parking arrangements and got John to confirm our rental car and hotel multiple times. I packed two days ahead of time. I was organized.

I had envisioned a leisurely departure with the 2-hour drive to Newark being the calm beginning to a week long vacation. Instead, we got off 30 minutes later than planned, and then had to turn back 2 miles from home to get the EZ Pass out of the other car. We sweated the whole tense (and very quiet) way to Newark, managed to arrive with one hour to departure, and then had a 3-hour weather delay. Oh well. From there everything went very smoothly.

I kept the grocery list and menu and I'm going to reuse it next year. Who wants to reinvent the wheel? Anyway, I hereby present myself with the Vacation Planning merit badge for my Mom sash. If I earn enough badges, I just may qualify to have a second kid.

posted at 10:46 AM # (1) comments

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Home Again Home Again

We're home, and recovering from what is essentially a 24-hour trip. It's broken up into little chunks of driving, waiting, hotelling, more driving, waiting and flying, but the elapsed time from door to door is 24 hours. Now I'm just catching up on my electronic reading and willing John to speed through HP #6.

Thanks for the comments on our silly photo shoot. It was a blast, and turned out to be a satisfying artistic experience for me as well as a funny way to spend a morning. More thoughts to come later on sweaters and vacations.

In the meantime:

Why don't you join me?

posted at 9:00 PM # (2) comments

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Why? How many miles does it have on it now?

If you were on vacation in Newfoundland,

where an original Kaffe Fassett jacket lay stashed in a drawer,

you wouldn't let it just sit there, would you?

Neither would I. My director of photography and I mounted a mock photo shoot, Rowan-style.

I think the sweater had a pretty good time. Okay, back to vacation!

posted at 11:16 PM # (8) comments

Thursday, July 07, 2005

County Fair

A month or so ago, I got inspired to enter the state fair. Ann, at Mason-Dixon Knitting, gave me the idea, and even though knitting is not going fast enough or well enough to consider designing something for competition, I spent a little time daydreaming. Turns out we have 115 county fairs instead of one big Pennsylvania state fair, and there are 3 of these fairs in my county. Hmmm. And in addition to a ribbon you could win $2 or even $5, if you take top prize in your category! (Obviously, the ribbon is the real prize and the cash is just a little token amount to defray your costs on the midway.)

After puzzling over the county fair web sites for an hour or so, I realized that competitive knitting was a little much to take on this summer, so I limited my involvement to checking in on Ann's beautiful sweater design and sending good thoughts her way.

And then I went to a local ice cream shop and saw a machine appliqued quilt featuring ice cream cones and sporting a ribbon from the county fair... And then we had a family 4th of July celebration and my cousin's gorgeous, perfectly browned, delicious lemon meringue pie inspired others to talk about an entry in the county fair (sadly, meringue pies are not accepted for competition, I checked). Suddenly, I realized the dream was still alive. I could enter THIS:

It's already done, I made it this year, it's (IMHO) better than the ice cream shop quilt-- I'm doing it. My online entry made it in just hours before the deadline on July 5th. I'm excited, and I don't care if I win anything at all, I'm just thrilled to show my work. Yippee! I'm going to the fair!

posted at 5:49 AM # (5) comments

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Sweater progress

Here's the two inches of sweater I managed to knit this weekend:

Where did I find the time to knit? Here, that's where! So far it looks like it's going to fit!

posted at 6:55 AM # (4) comments

Monday, July 04, 2005

Knitting Content!

[Long technical knitting content.... sorry!]

I recently swore off gauge swatches along with Cindy. More often than not, knitting a four-inch swatch gives me a false sense of security when I cast on for the real thing, leading to deep disappointment and the feeling I've wasted my gauge time and my knitting time when my sweater back measures 2 inches too wide. My new strategy is a quick swatch for range-- check to see which needles approximate the tension I need, then cast on a test piece. A full size test piece. Preferably a cardigan front, but in the case of a pullover a full-on test back is required. I begin knitting knowing that this is a trial run. If the cast on isn't fancy or the ribbing looks a little sloppy I don't sweat it because I know I'm going to get a second chance. I knit in pattern for 2 inches or so and take a second measurement. THEN I feel like I know something about the size of my sweater.

My latest project is the Sarah James Naturalle pullover in teal Araucania Nature Wool (#28). The pattern calls for a heavy worsted (4 spi) and the wool claims to have a tension of 18 spi and 28 rpi. Well, I'm getting 5 spi and I could comfortably get 6 spi and still like the fabric. Grr. But I love the color and the fabric, so I decided to do some math and adjust the pattern. Luckily, the sweater is a basic rectangle, drop-shoulder style so the math is minimal. The sweater is sized S, M, L. I want a medium, so at my gauge I have to knit an XL. The upsizing wasn't hard and now I'm on my way.

Now, I hope I have enough yardage. The pattern called for 1260 yards for the L (remember that's at 4 spi). Since I'm getting 5 spi and I want to knit a 42" sweater, I consulted Ann Budd's Knitter's Guide to Yarn Requirements and found the recommendation of 1568 yards. I have 1452 yards. Considering that Ann Budd includes 10% padding in her recommendations, I should be okay. Oh please oh please!

I'm going to knit the back and one sleeve and see if I still have half my yarn left to try to avoid a big problem at the end. Wish me luck!

posted at 8:47 AM # (1) comments

Friday, July 01, 2005

Will someone PLEASE change the station??

I'm tired of bats. Our first bat arrived on Saturday. I heard it cheeping all day in the hole above our refrigerator. (You know, the one we created when we ripped out the old cabinet to fit in the new fridge? The one that provides a view into the plumbing of the bathroom upstairs? Yeah, that one, the one that's a year old.) I thought it was a mouse based on the noise it was making and the poops I found on top of the fridge. (Note to self: time to find a taller cleaning lady.) But the noise didn't stop even when I got really close and stared up into the hole, nor when I got a flashlight and started scanning the shadows for the squeaker. And then I saw it. Not a mouse...too black, too slow and uncertain. What IS that? A frog, creeping along the cinder blocks? That doesn't make any sense... Oh God it's a bat! Okay, okay, bats are fine...they aren't really scary... okay I'm lying, they are a little creepy looking. After a few more hours, John was able to catch it and usher it out the door. The End.

I wish it were the end! Monday there was a tiny bat hanging from the exposed beam in the hole. After the initial shock I got from seeing it there (I practically dropped the vegetable peeler which is black and suddenly looked exactly like a bat in my hand), I enjoyed watching it sleep throughout the day. That evening I went to look for it and it was gone! Perhaps it had navigated its way back out the way it had come, I hoped. I walked back and forth through the house, turning out lights, gathering dishes, and suddenly saw the bat lying on the living room floor just ahead of my foot! Ack all over again! It wasn't moving and I thought I must have stepped on it, but my vermin control specialist assured me that it flew away when released into the night. The End.

Okay, not the end. Chapter Three.

The next day there were no visible bats in the kitchen. Phew! But I still tended to doublecheck the floor in front of me to be sure there were no camoflauged bats lying on the Oriental carpet. Just as I was starting to feel comfortable again-- at eight o'clock p.m.-- I saw a bat lying on the floor just inches from the first chalk outline. ACK! WTF!? I could tell this was a different bat, because it was bigger and furrier than my last visitor. I debated my options and finally decided to be a grown up and take the bat out myself since John was busy with nighttime parenting duties. I got as far as placing the glass measuring cup over it and sliding some paper part way under (Nicole...sound familiar?) when I lost it and ran upstairs for reinforcements. I took over baby duties and sent John down to finish the job. He was gone for a long time, I thought, since I had done half the work already.

Well, it turns out I had done only 25% of the work. Completely missing the measuring cup with captive bat at the foot of the stairs, John had headed for the kitchen and found a REALLY BIG bat fluttering around in there. While he got his bat removal materials ready, Squeaky the Cat came around the corner, stuck out a paw, and swatted the bat down onto the floor. (Aha! One mystery solved.) John carried it outside and was headed back to the nursery when he found my bat under the measuring cup. Disposing of that one too, he finally joined us upstairs. While we sat in the dark, rocking the baby, we worried that we would come back down to a floor covered in furry bats.

That didn't happen. So far, no new bats. THE END.

I really really hope.

posted at 12:16 PM # (2) comments

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