07.12.09
Posted in daily life stuff, Crafts, knitting at 11:05 pm by Shari
Is it bad to pat myself on the back for being all domestic? I’m so proud of myself for getting to together enough to buy the cherries and get the jam all done in the same evening. I even came home after work and had a nap before getting started. When I realized I had fallen asleep, I thought the plan was doomed, but it worked 
I was concerned about the age of the pectin that I had. I don’t even wanna say what the “best used by” date was on the box. But I can tell it’s jelling just fine. I made 6 cups plus a little scraped out of the bottom of the pan. It tastes good too.
I got 3 qts of cherries and used nearly 2 of them. So there’s another qt left. I just ran across a recipe for Pineapple Cherry Jam - hmm… that sounds good too. But then again, just eating them sounds good, so I guess I’ll probably eat them and see what’s available next weekend to do some more jam of some sort. A couple kinds of berries sounds good to me.
The mice apparently missed TWO of the sunflower seeds, not just one. So I decided I’d go ahead and plant the rest of the seeds hoping a few of them will come up. Then I’ll have a planter worth of dwarf sunflowers.
Still plugging along on the 2×2 Sockotta socks. The remaining balls of yarn are about 1/2 dollar sized at the most, and from what I can figure, about 2″ more of knitting to go before I quit. I’m DETERMINED to use all of the yarn on these. Definitely fold down cuffs.
I did some training in the frame shop yesterday and today at JA’s. I thought I was just gonna learn about design and setting up the orders. Umm… apparently not - I did some fit and finish today too. I guess if it means a chance to pick up some additional hours that’s a good thing.
Time to hit the hay. I have a few errands to be run in the morning before working at S. I’m thinking of running to Williamson Hardware to see if I can find some cotton rope, basic wood spring clothes pins and a cherry pitter. They’re good for all kinds of stuff you can’t find anywhere else, so hopefully my luck will hold there.
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07.10.09
Posted in daily life stuff, knitting at 6:35 am by Shari
Sunflower.
Yeah, the mouse missed one of the seeds so I have one sunflower growing.
So now, I’m thinking maybe I SHOULD plant those other seeds. It’s only nearly the MIDDLE OF JULY! What the heck am I doing thinking of planting now?
Works been… umm…. a change of pace. Last week I had some training in doing chat support and got assigned to the chat queue. Some days it’s not so bad, though it does seems slow most of the time. They quickly upped our skill level from 1 chat at a time to 3 chats at a time. The first times I saw a second and then third chat show in my queue I did panic, but now I’m okay with that. Since most of the questions there aren’t terribly complex, it’s manageable. It’s frustrating, though, that there’s so little to work on in just typed words - when a customer leaves a chat you don’t know if they are ticked off, having tech problems or has just realized what needs to be done and is going to do it on their own. And when it’s minutes between their responses, is it because they didn’t see mine? or they are confused or having trouble or they are ticked off and trying to resist going off on me? When I can hear the voice, at least I have some clues and can do something to resolve it.
Oh, well - it’s a paying job with benefits and being able to handle multiple types of support makes me more versatile, right?
I’m STILL working on 2×2 ribbing on the Sockotta socks. Can you tell I’m tired of 2×2 ribbing? But I have enough yarn for several more inches and I’m trying hard to resist the urge to cast off now. They are just high enough now that I could do that, but that leaves me with small balls of yarn that have no use, so I’ll push myself to keep going. They do feel nice on my feet and will be great with jeans or khakis.
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07.04.09
Posted in daily life stuff, Crafts, knitting at 9:23 pm by Shari
I’m sure of it. The birds opened the package of sunflower seeds and cracked them open, leaving a pile of the hulls next to the package. So Barb stops by the store one day and gives me a partial package of dwarf sunflower seeds. I know better than to plant them outside. I plant them in peat pots inside and what happens? I go to look at them and find that SOMETHING has neatly dug into the centers of the peatpots and removed the seeds. Okay - if you have a nice suburban home, you might think that mice are squick. I understand that. I don’t like them, but it’s one of the realities of living in an OLD farmhouse in the country. No matter if you try to get rid of them, they do come back 
So, there will be NO sunflowers at our house this year. I am NOT going to try it again.
I didn’t get a chance to pick strawberries for jam this year, but the orchard guy at the corner has cherries so I bought some today. I’ve gotta make sure i have some jars, rings and lids and hopefully in the next couple of days I’ll get more to make some cherry jam. (You didn’t think I wouldn’t have started eating these already, did you?) I found a recipe using Splenda that I think I’ll try. Don’t know why I’m feeling all domestic, but I’ll take advantage of it while I do, I guess.
Yesterday was a paid holiday - WOOT! Got together with Barb and we went gallivanting. Stopped at Village Yarn and Fiber in East Rochester, then popped across the street to Patricia’s Fabrics, Golden Thread, Let’s Bead and the little restaurant for lunch. My only purchase, besides lunch, was the cutest knitted bunny patten from Plymouth Yarns, but saw some great quilt patterns/ideas and was way inspired by the bead store. I fell in love with some Happy Feet yarn (only $6.00/skein, about 190 yds/sk) in color “16″. After ravelling it, though, I’m glad I didn’t get it - didn’t like it’s look so much when it’s all knitted up. They did have a semi-solid green that looked pretty nice too, but heaven knows I have enough sock yarn to keep me busy this summer and then some.
Speaking of socks - the sockotta ones are about 3″ above the heel, so whenever I am ready to stop, I can. I decided I’ll try to persevere and knit as long as I can so I can fold them over. I’m going to learn a 2×2 tubular rib cast off for these too. I have enough yarn for at least another 6-8″ I believe.
The other pair in progress is Paton’s Kroy Strips (Cyan stripes) and are about 4″ down from the top of the cuff. These started with a tubular 1×1 rib cast on and I’ll probably do just 6″ on the leg before starting the heel.
Baby girl is in the area this weekend. Another whirlwind trip, as usual. She arrived at 11 and we met at Panera’s for lunch today. Then I went off to work and she went off to visit friends. She’ll head back “home” tomorrow morning. She brought me a Mother’s Day gift - a cute “mom” mug and some more drink sticks - cran white peach, I think it was. It’s weird adjusting to everything she can’t eat - she’s found that eating gluten free has made her stomach much better. The summer picnic will be interesting - Grandma will be suggesting she eat all kinds of things that she’s found she can’t. I want to be sure she’s got options to eat that day without feeling that she has to explain it all.
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06.25.09
Posted in odds 'n ends, daily life stuff, knitting at 11:34 pm by Shari
Just ‘cuz I spent more years than I’d like on a farm, and helped with the garden more than I’d like, it doesn’t mean I’m able to grow anything.
The tomatoes are going well - no blooms yet, so obviously no produce, but it’s looking pretty promising. The cukes (what lasted when I first planted) and squash are going well too. Lettuce, on the other hand, and herbs - not so much.
Ever hear of hydroponics? I could pretend that I was trying to learn about that. But the fact of the matter is that I didn’t realize the flowerbox style planters I had had drain holes that were PLUGGED. And we got a TON of rain last week. When it cleared enough to go check on everything, I went out to find all the lettuce under at least 2″ of water. Oops! The water’s been drained, and the plugs removed and the lettuce isn’t exactly dead, but I’m not sure if it’s bouncing back either. Time will tell
The herbs have been living in the house and were all gangly looking. I decided once it had gotten more consistently warm (but not blistering yet) that it was time to take them out to be conditioned. The next day, nearly all of them were dead What’s left is back inside for the moment, seeing what happens to them.
The last thing planted is some mint in a few pots. Still waiting on those to come up. If for some reason they don’t come up - it’ll be time to quit. My recollection is that mint grows even if you don’t want it to.
The other thing I was planning to plant was some sunflowers - but the birds attacked the seed packet and relieved me of the seeds, so I either go get some more or skip that for this year.
Amber’s acting all lethargic like she did last late summer/early fall. Last time she just kept slowing down. This time it’s starting with her bugging the heck out of her ears… rubbing them and digging at them to the point that she’s opened up all kinds of next to her ears. We started trying to massage the ears with damp cloths which she seems to really like us doing, but then she started slowing down in the last day and a half or so… and the clinch-pin is not eating again. Made a vet appt for tomorrow morning and I’m hoping it’s easier (read cheaper) to sort out than last time. And if she’s gotta take any drugs, you can bet I’ll make them write an Rx to take to Walgreens.
One good thing about tomorrow is that I’M ON VACATION. Yeah - for a single day…. a day that I didn’t know I was even eligible for until 2 days ago and then had to make sure I took before next Wednesday or I’d lose it. I could have sworn that I had to be there 6 months before I’d get my first day. 6 months is Monday. Nope… for some reason I looked at accruals in the timekeeping system on Tuesday and saw that I had 7 hrs! Since I’m scheduled for training activities next Monday and Tuesday, and vaca has to be scheduled in advance and the daily phone schedule set a day ahead, it meant the ONLY day I could take was tomorrow. So I requested it and hoped there’s be “enough bandwidth” to approve my request. Luckily it was approved so that means I don’t have to sweat getting out of the vet TOO fast. Not that I want to be there long - that just means more $$$’s, usually, but it’s one less stress factor.
On the knitting front - I’ve been working on the Sockotta socks but it’s time to turn the heel. I was gonna try Wendy Johnson’s directions. I started it and then realized that I hadn’t set up properly. Put them down and started a pair using Paton’s Kroy Stripes (in the cyan stripes colorway) that are turning out great too. With the vacation day tomorrow, I hope to have the time to focus on the Sockotta pair to get those heels done so they are back to mindless knitting, ie knitting that can be done at work.
Are you tired yet of the MJ coverage on TV? It’s not even 12 hrs yet and is totally overshadowing FF’s death. Word of both deaths spread so fast today, what with everyone having a cell phone and getting/sending text messages. I grew up w/ his music and did like lots of it, but didn’t like the personality or persona or something once he passed his teens or so… Now the rumor mills and spin doctors are going crazy and we’ll probably never know what really happened, but then again, is it really our business?
If I don’t get to bed, it’ll be impossible to get to the vet on time, so I’d better shut up for now.
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06.17.09
Posted in daily life stuff, knitting at 1:59 pm by Shari
I’m on a “kick” with knitting socks at the moment. I finished up the carnival colored socks last Thursday and wore them before I got to take any pics on Friday. Immediately cast on another pair.
This time it’s Sockotta yarn, size 2 Addi Turbo circular needle, doing the pair from the toe up, magic loop technique. The yan is basically a washed out denim base color with stripes of pale yellow, light brown, light blue and light green. The colors always alternate with the base color and sometimes there’s 2 of the contrast color and sometimes 3. They started at different places in the repeat, so this pair will definitely be fraternal not nearly identical.
I understand the basics of the heel and now that I got through one set on my own, I went back to Wendy Johnson’s site to see how she does the heel turn/flap on a toe up sock and will mingle what I did with what she does on this pair. I’m soon ready to work on turning the heel on this new pair.
In the garden - I planted the lettuce and squash last weekend. Dang, those lettuce seeds are small and there’s a LOT in a package. They look pretty funny and definitely too many in the planter, but we’ll see how big I can get them before I start thinning them out - add at least a few of those tiny leaves to a salad. The squash is coming up just fine and 1/2 of the cukes didn’t revive themselves after they were transplanted. I still didn’t put in the mint, but I know that’ll grow like a weed, so I’m not stressed about that. The herbs have all come up but look a little too tender to put outside in their planters yet. Tomatoes look great and need some stakes very soon. It’s kinda exciting to know that I’ve gotten these things in and I look forward to picking from the back porch.
The other day I got the first few quarts of fresh from the field strawberries. Wilberts, on Rt 350 in Macedon? Walworth? is right on the way to the dump. I had to take the trash on Sunday and was very excited to see they were open. Those strawberries didn’t last very long. They have U-Pick at some point, and I’d like to pick some to make jam this year, but we’ll see if I can get it together to make that happen.
I also found a place that had fresh asparagus - YUM. Usually when I go by this place, they are all out by the time I get through there. Chuck doesn’t much like asparagus, but I do, so I sneak a little in during the very short season.
I have very fond memories of going out to pick the asparagus at my grandmother’s house when I was little. We’d bring it all in, clean it and put it in bunches that she’d put out by the road. My brothers and I would hide under the big pine tree and watch people come by to buy it - we were certain that people were going to steal the money and we (aged 8, 6 and 3) weren’t going to let that happen. I wish her house was still there so I could see how big it REALLY was. As a kid, it was HUGE, and the asparagus field went on forever, and there was a huge field for catching lightening bugs. The walk-in basement had so much fun stuff. I’m sure now I’d be shocked at how small it really was.
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06.06.09
Posted in daily life stuff, knitting at 7:29 pm by Shari
Okay, so I did finish the Gin & Tonic socks a few days ago and promptly wore them the next day. Here’s a few shots. The darker ones are more representative of the colors. My second toe really isn’t deformed even though it kinds looks it in the pictures. I’ve decided that although I do really like these… I like the pattern even without the cable crossings. Also, I think I’d like the solid section of the toe to be a little deeper, and even though I did make the heel flap deeper than the pattern said, it should have been even deeper than that.
Now on the needles is a pair that’s been on the needles since January. It’s my first pair of toe up magic loop with a heel flap and gusset like the ones I do on a top down. I had to really think through the process (what, me follow an existing pattern???) and wanted to get into the heel sometime when I could focus and get them both done. Since during tax season I never felt like I could, I had put them aside. Now they are nearly done - just a few inches on the leg and ribbing at the top. I plan to make them as tall as I can given the yarn I have. I’m calling them my carnival socks because the yarn is red, aqua, purple, orange and white. What the HELL was I thinking when I picked that combo???? Anyway - the yarn is JoAnn Sensations Soles & More and I’m using a size 2 needle for this pair.
Also still in the needles (among many things) is that purple sweater that I was going great guns on before. Need to do some ripping so I get back to the bottom of the v-neck section then I can get back into that project again.
On the home front, I did some more planting. Last night I got the cukes into the barrel, along with some squash seeds. Also did the hanging planters for the front porch and lettuce in a window box-like planter. I have mint for another planter and some sunflower seeds that I’d like to throw in somewhere. The cukes look a little sad today - one set had dried out too much while waiting to be planted. Remembering the farm years, I know I don’t need much in the way of plant to have an overabundance of vegetables, so I’m not going to sweat that. If they come back, great. If not, there’ll still be plenty, I’m sure. The tomatoes I planted early in the week are looking pretty perky and I think I can see all of one sprout in the 12 peat pots of herbs that I planted. Whatever - it still feels good to have started something this year and hopefully we’ll get at least a little yield from the effort.
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06.01.09
Posted in odds 'n ends, knitting at 6:57 pm by Shari
I didn’t finish up the G&T socks last night. And, it’s going just fine working on them at work today, and they aren’t quite finished even though work is nearly finished. Hmm… wrong on all accounts.
One of the other distractions when I’m at work is reading cnn.com and browsing the articles there. Last Friday it took me to Philly.com to read an article, then I read another and another. None of them noteworthy, but it made me think back to the 2 yrs I lived down there. Somehow that made me nostalgic and I decided to try using maps.google.com to see what it looks like now.
What fun that was! Plugged in my apt’s address and it landed me about a block from the building. I switched to street view and starting going up and down streets… It was funny to see the windows for the bedroom I had the first year I was there, that overlooked the next door frat house’s yard (that house looks rather abandoned now), and the front bedroom window that we used to open to throw keys down to visitors so we could avoid 3 flights of stairs to let them in. I don’t remember there being a tree on the sidewalk, but I guess in 28 yrs, a lot can change. We might get keys stuck in the branches if we tried that trick now.
I went on a walk to school, to Mr. O’Malley corner store, the sub shop another block away where my buddy Scot worked, up and down the neighborhood streets, the walk over to the UP campus, etc. Visited the grocery store and the church I attended, the dorm where some friends lived, etc. It was so much fun to see what was changed and what was still the same.
I think I’ll take another trip to Center City one day. Likely I won’t recognize nearly as much there.
Argh… time to quit and my phone just rang… later…
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05.31.09
Posted in odds 'n ends at 5:54 pm by Shari
And that’s a good thing.
Growing up on a farm wasn’t my idea of fun. No, we didn’t have tons of fields planted and no, I didn’t have to work in the barn except for when we were haying. But, we had a HUGE garden. All 3 of us kids shared in the planting and weeding and picking, and as the only girl, I did tons of the “putting up” of what came out of it. When I left the farm, I didn’t want anything to do with planting and weeding and putting up of ANYTHING anymore.
Not so much anymore (it’s been 30 years, about time, huh?). I’ve done strawberry jam and apple butter from time to time over the years and actually have contemplated putting in some raspberry canes at the end of our pole barn. I’ve even planted flowers a few times. The last couple of years, though, nothing.
I had good intentions last year and even got some great pottery for planting in - and then did nothing.
Yesterday I got inspired. I called home and told hubby I wanted the planters brought up before I got home and then went to Lowes to get some plants and soil. When I got home I started right away with getting some of it planted.
I started with the “wavy petunias” in these planters that look like they’re coming out of the house. I loved the pots as soon as I saw them last year, and we have them again this year. I kept looking at them yesterday since I was doing a demo right by them and just really wanted to finally make use of them. So, I did.
Today we FINALLY got out onto the deck (we didn’t use the deck at all last year - access was blocked all summer long). I had already planted the cherry tomato plants in the strawberry pots last night, so those got moved to the deck, as well as pots for the regular tomato plants. There’s some cukes waiting to be planted (I have a huge tub they’ll go in) and I also started some chives, rosemary and basil that’ll get added to the strawberry pots once they are ready.
I have a couple of hanging baskets out front that I want to fill, and I want to do a planter to put on the well cover. Chuck suggested something else on the front porch, but knowing the dog, it’ll be tipped within the first hour of her being out there, so I’ll skip that one.
Amber remembers being out on the deck and took advantage the moment she was able to do so. There’s lots to be done out there especially after 2 winters, but now that I can get there, I’m looking forward to hanging out there.
The Gin and Tonic socks are very nearly done. I’m just rows from starting the decreases. I’ll probably do that tonight and make sure I have something else to work on tomorrow at work since these socks a) won’t last all day and b) will probably get screwed up if I keep picking it up and putting it down during calls.
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05.28.09
Posted in odds 'n ends, daily life stuff, knitting at 10:47 pm by Shari
Work’s been going fine lately. short breaks between calls but enough to feel like I’m making a contribution. I’m still trying to adjust to the best way to deal with the schedule and optimizing my use of non-work hours, but I guess it’s coming.
The socks I’ve been working on are coming along. I realized that I wasn’t doing the gusset decreases consistently/correctly, so I slowed down while I assessed where I was. I’m about back on track now. Here’s how they look at the moment:
The color isn’t quite right and I expect the lace is going to be more obvious once they are “blocked” on my fat legs, but I’m liking them now (now that I’ve got the number of rows between cable crossing rows memorized)
I’m holding off on the purple sweater at the moment, but expect to be back at that very soon.
When I took these pics off the camera card, I realized I never took off the pics from Christmas. Here’s a few:
Knitted Ornaments: 
Mom’s knitted shoe bag
Gift bag(s) :
Mom’s casserole carrier:
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05.18.09
Posted in knitting at 6:57 am by Shari
I got the G&T socks back on track and they are going along nicely. One complete repeat on both socks completed and into the second repeat. Decided on plastic tapestry needles for the cable needles and it’s going well with that too.
So this morning I get out the computer, Excel and the graph for the purple sweater to start charting the bindoffs vs the lace pattern so I can work on that today. Then I go to see where the front neck starts doing it’s thing so I can incorporate that into the chart too. Yeah… The armholes start at 15″ from the beginning. The front neck decreases start at 11.5″.
Now I have to think about whether I wanna
- rip out some of the sweater (ugh!)
OR
- hope I have enough yarn to start the neckline decreases now and just make it a bit longer (it was short in the first place and I DID get extra yarn so I’d be able to do longer sleeves, so I’d probably be okay there, but then probably have to stick to the shorter sleeves)
OR
- rip a bit but not all the way back to 11.5″and hope that I’ll have a little more length but still enough for long sleeves.
Decisions, decisions
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