01.31.08
Posted in Circular Sock Machine, Knitting at 11:33 am by Lynette
I’ve spent the last day working on a knee sock pattern for a customer. I’ve found there are many variations in regular socks, wide feet, narrow feet, high arches, longer, shorter, narrow ankles, thick calves. For knee socks add to those options, length of leg to knee, calf measurement and reinforced heels and toes. You can see how complicated this can get.
Here is the finished product. Notice the matched stripes. That came out really great! The yarn is Lang Yarns, JA Woll made in Switzerland. I’ve never knit with this before but it is nice yarn with uniform gage and a nice pattern.
But the bind off on the top was the dilemma. Yes, these socks are knit from the top down. There is the rib on the top of the sock (which allows you to actually get them on your feet which is a good thing,) but makes it all but impossible to do the normal rolled hem.
So out the books came, which type of bind off to use? I know I didn’t find all the options but I did try out 4 different kinds.
What I ended up with is a stretchy bind-off that allows for a semi rigid top but still enough give to (hopefully) hold on to the leg.
It looks nice and finished. This little experiment in knee sock knitting has taken much longer than I thought it would but has given me loads of information and experience for future knee sock orders.
Now, on to mailing out this large order and on to the next one.
Enjoy your weekend and stay safe.
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01.25.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 8:43 am by Lynette
What is this world coming to? First global warming, recession, a historic presidential election with choices that are just to troubling to even start discussing here. And now, check this out.
What the heck? The dog and cat laying together on the same bed? Has the universe turned inside out? I believe these two are having a secret relationship. How do I know? Here are the clues.
1. Occasionally when I walk into the room the dog is wash/grooming the cat with gusto and the cat actually stands there and let’s her.
2. At other times I find the cat standing on her hind legs ‘hugging’ the dog’s face. My kids call it kitty boxing but if you remember your 7th & 8th grade social interaction class, hitting really means I like you.
3. Finally, the above picture. Not only are they in the same room but you can clearly see the dogs hind leg is TOUCHING the cat’s tail.
Oh my gosh, what will happen next? A women president? Please tell me it isn’t so.
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01.22.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 9:08 am by Lynette
I hate my neighbors. Normally my ire is directed toward Mr. Piro on the south side. Today it is toward Mr. & Mrs. holier than thou PBEFC members on the North side.
I have chickens. Yes I have 7 chickens. And one of them loves flying over the chain link and scratching on the fence line under their rhodes. No biggie. She doesn’t go anywhere else than next to the fence. Probably some great bugs there because they NEVER prune, rake, fertilize or even look at these bushes.
So this morning after running errands I was ‘greeted’ by “LYNETTE (yelled at me) IF YOU CANNOT KEEP YOUR CHICKENS IN YOUR YARN WE’RE GOING TO KILL THEM”.
Well, good f***ing morning to you.
So I said “You don’t have to worry about it for much longer, we ‘re moving.”
“You are, where are you going?”
I wanted to say anywhere but here but I said “To Brookings.”
“Why to Brookings”, she yelled back.
I wanted to reply Because I hate my G** D*** neighbors. What I really said was “to get out of California.”
What the heck. This is the country. I cannot believe these people. In the past they’ve called the animal control because we had 3 wild mallard ducks that took up residence in our yarn. Why did they call the pound? The complaint said “our ducks were flying”.
These people need to move back to San Diego. On better yet, we’ll move!
Did I get the chicken out of their yarn. Hell no. Let them worry about it.
I hope my new neighbors like my chickens and dog and children. If not….watch out.
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01.21.08
Posted in Circular Sock Machine, Redwood Living at 8:25 am by Lynette
Random thoughts for today…
1. The January Thaw is here. It is a little known and untracked weather occurance that happens in mid January. Thus far we’ve had 10 days with relatively ‘nice’ weather and just a bit of misty rain yesterday. We’re due for 4 more days of sunny/cloudy days then the rain starts and will continue through April.
NEXT
The hidden costs of building your home and notorious. We can handle the many aspects of road building, water piping, holding tank locations, septic installation, cement pouring but it is the hidden costs that frighten me.
NEXT
Coos/Curry power has a monopoly that won’t be broken. They are the only power company in Brookings. As such they have the power (no pun intended) to do whatever they want. As of Feb. 1st they are no longer giving transformers you have to pay $5,000. Yes, I said $5,000. And they are charging us $6,000 to pull the power lines through the conduit (that is costing $4,000 for the trench and conduit to be laid) and placing the transformer. That is a hell of a pay check. $6,000 for one days work. Plus you have to sign a 10 year contract with them. ouch!
NEXT
I hate my Pulmonologist’s scheduler. She has called me 4 times to reschedule my appointment. I made it for November and it is now January and she wanted to reschedule to February. I told her this was the last time. If they try to reschedule again I’m finding another Dr. (Never mind there isn’t one within 3 hours!) They have now moved me into another calender year and I will have to pay the deductable. That is why I made the appointment in November in the first place. Amazingly enough she called back and said she would keep it at the same date and time. Hmmmm.
FINALLY
I am on order 9 and have 25 in the works for Socks knit from YOUR yarn. Business is moving right along and thus far I’ve had very few ‘problems’. I think I’ve found my niche.
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01.18.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 10:14 am by Lynette
January in the Pacific Northwest brings a break from the wet, misty rain of December. January also brings cold days and crisp clear nights and gives us gardeners the push to get outside and prune our dormant shrubs and trees. It is difficult to resist being drawn in with all these seed and plant catalogs I’ve been receiving. I set them aside and review my garden plans with plant listings that have been gleaned over 18 years of gardening in our area. I have kept semi-accurate records of what has worked for me over the years. My favorite varieties of vegetables to be specific. We live is a unique climate and our home is located in a subclimate that allows me to plant earlier and harvest longer than the majority of gardeners on the coast.
As I sit at the dining room table this morning I am reading Tasha Tudor’s Garden. This book chronicles a year in Tasha’s Garden. If you’re unfamiliar with Tasha Tudor, I encourage you to get your hands on the VHS (they really need to copy this to a DVD) called Take Joy – The Magical World of Tasha Tudor. She is an inspiration to me. She has spent her life in a slower pace in Vermont. She currently lives on property adjacent to one of her children. In fact her son hand made her home. He used no modern power tools. He hand cut all the timber and whittled the plugs and didn’t use nails to secure the home together. I would love to see it.
Tasha always has something from her garden in her home, even in the dead of a Vermont winter. Yesterday as I walked out to gather the eggs from my small flock of laying hens I looked at my dead, brown garden and wondered if there was anything I could bring into the house to brighten up my table. I found some drying hydrangea blossoms and a handful of lavender that had survived the freezes in the greenhouse. When looking down on the hydrangea blossoms you can see they have turned from pink to purple but the amazing surprise was when I turned them over to shake off spiders and dust. 
The underside of the blossoms were a bright chartreuse green. I arranged them in the wire basket the DS gave us at Christmas. While poking the lavender into the hydrangeas many of the dried lavender blossoms fell off and the aroma filled the room. I let them lay on the beautifully handwoven table runner I purchased from Sally.
So here I sit in the morning sun. Dreaming of my garden, with the smell of lavender, the taste of breakfast blend coffee and the satisfying flavor of pumpkin muffins made from my home grown pumpkins.
Enjoy your day.
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01.14.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 9:13 pm by Lynette
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We’ve Signed our lives away
Once again, for the 6th and last time in my life we’ve signed our lives away to purchase a home. This will be my last and most expensive. A beautiful piece of property, 6 acres, located above Whales Head north of Brookings. My good friend, Linda, and her DH have signed the papers as have we and the wheels are set in motion.
There are so many things to do. But we hope to move in by June 15th.
My mind is filled with seed catalogs. Last year I didn’t plant a vegetable garden because our house was up for sale. It has been the first time in 18 years I didn’t have even a kitchen garden. I missed it terribly. The previous year we tried to eat at least half our meals from the 100 foot diet. That ment, eating food that was raised on our small acre, not walking more than 100 feet out the back door to get fresh produce.
 Now that we will be living on a sloping homesite I have visions of terraces and vegatable gardens out my front door. I am itching to get started. I hope the excitement stays with me as we slog through the mud and road building.
I’ve been reading Tasha Tutor’s garden. I can hardly wait to get my hands in the soil.
First the dozer guy needs to spend some time clearing off the level piece for a garden and home for the greenhouse. |
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01.12.08
Posted in Blogroll at 10:40 am by Lynette
Happy 2008 to all my Yarn of the Month Club members and all my other Blog Buddies.
(I apologize for the weird fonts, apparently something is wrong with my type sizing)
This Month’s yarn is Thunder in honor of the first 10 days of 2008. Living in Del Norte County in the northern most corner of California can be an adventure. Beside the fact that Sacramento doesn’t know we exist we have to deal with rock slides, power outages, flooding and very high gas prices ($3.49 currently). But there are the good things also. We live daily with beautiful surroundings, spectacular storms, the Smith River which is one of the last undammed rivers in the USA and the ability to live a slower, relaxed, rural life.
The first week of January 2008 bought a real ‘Del Norter’. The definition of a Del Norter is winds over 60 MPH, sea swells greater than 25 feet high, super high tides that wash over the highway and power outages. We were without electricity for over 14 hours. The good news was it really wasn’t that cold. With the help of our portable heater “Mr. Buddy” and a new Super Scrabble game board, the kids and I weathered the storm just fine.
In honor of this big storm and the suggestion from one of our club members Mama Moo in Florida, I’ve dyed for you Thunder. Normally I don’t show what the yarn will knit up like. This month I felt your yarn deserved a bit of explanation.
In each skein you actually have two separate skeins. When you ball your yarn you will see a big knot toward the middle. Due to the dying method of this yarn, what you have is two skeins that were dyed light to dark. When knit up it will look like this. 
See the socks on the bottom of the picture? Notice they go from dark at the toes to light at the tops? So, if you want your stocks to match I suggest you wind your yarn into two balls and knit the socks from the same end of each skein.
Thanks to my DH Brad who is becoming an expert with the Knitty Noddy. He spent a couple nights re-winding each dyed ball.
Enjoy the rest of January and be safe.
If you are interested in joining the Yarn of the Month Club for Spring/Summer 2008, you can go HERE to see the specifics.
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01.02.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 9:20 am by Lynette
The new year started off with nice weather and a trek over hill and dale looking for a cistern.
It don’t look like much now but we have high hopes for the future. 
Work has started on clearing the home site.
After this walk KT said “I don’t like it here”. and “what are the positives about moving here?” I truly believe this girl would make a great lawyer. She asks the most difficult questions.
After 40 minutes in the draw we (or I should say the DH) did not find that damn cistern.
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