Way out in the Middle of Nowhere

I promised myself that when I was finished with the sweater that I would buy the Deephaven Cowl pattern I so coveted on Ravelry. With the sweater all sewn up, the ends woven in, I purchased the pattern.  Then came the scavenging for anything worsted in my stash.  My only option was about 3/4 of a skein of Cascade 220 in blue: Knitted on size 7 circs, I have learned how to knit cables without a cable needle.  It's actually very easy once you learn the concept. I watched a video on youtube; the one with lots of 'splaining that was unnecessary because I can actually visualize something without a tedious play-by-play.  The look of the cowl is good. I like the cables.  I don't like the curling. It's probably going to take quite a bit of blocking to train that out of the cowl.  Since the pattern calls for something like 500 yards, this is more like a close-fitting cowl than it's original concept.  No matter, I will give it away.  I also think t...

Randomly chosen from my family file folder, I give you: My Kayak.   And my sandals, and a plastic bag and my paddle.  Beached at some small island off the Chippewa River last summer. Dave and I selected a week alone as our 'honeymoon' and we camped out at Brunet Island State park.  We were fortunate to get a campsite with water access, so we put our kayak and canoe in on Monday and took them out on Saturday.  Each morning we'd get up, get coffee and breakfast and head on out. Dave would fish in the canoe and I would explore on my Kayak. It was like 102 degrees Fahrenheit that week; never got below 80 at night and the only time it was cooler was when it poured on Wednesday. It was best to get out on the water early, beach them at 1 through 5 and go back out after the sun starting going down. Dave has bad luck with Brunet Island. Both times he's been there they have experienced tornadoes.  The first time with his ex-wife.  They ended up spe...

We're doing a bit of adjusting to our usual holiday routine.  I'm pretty sure Dave is just as tired of all the driving as I am of all the riding.  We'll be making the trip to the In-Laws' and Daughter in Law next weekend.  So we got to spend Christmas here! YAY!!!! I did remember a few moments ago that this is supposed to be primarily a knitting blog.  So how about some knitting, right?! Get over the holidays and get to knitting girl! So let me introduce my Husband Dave in his Christmas Sweater: A nice wool sweater that can be worn around the house or at work.  The book I knitted it from is the Knitter's Book of Handy Sweater Patterns : The whole sweater took me about 3 weeks of nightly knitting to complete on size 10 1/2 needles. It's knitted from the bottom up raglan style. The yarn is Paton's Classic Wool in a deep olive color.  Actually it's leftover  yarn from my Gloucester Coat. I'm never going to finish that stupid thing, so I migh...

I'm a confessed hater of Christmas.  No, not the whole gist of the thing: The birth of Jesus.  More like all that this entails in today's world. Christmas takes a tough season for me-winter- and makes it worse squared. I also love lists so here's my reasons why I don't like Christmas:  Some dumass 2,000 years ago plopped this holiday in winter to make sure pagans would convert. Yeah, now that they've converted, can we put it back where it's supposed to be?  A friend and I spent a few hours discussing the true date of Jesus' birth.  From the part of the bible that states that 'Shepherds were watching their flocks by night.' makes us believe that it was in early spring. Shepherds usually sleep at night because flocks are good at tending to themselves, but  Shepherds need to be constantly vigilant during lambing. That happens in early spring.  Driving in Wisconsin winters.  Oh yes, we must brave 3' snowdrifts to see family...it's soooo ...

I've been told that I've lost my compassion more than once.  I've no sympathy for those who have struggled, they say. HA! Compassion is something I save for those who actually show some sort of effort in bettering their life.  It's something that has been on my mind for a while now, to let in some light to the darkest part of my adult-hood.  From the time I became pregnant with my son Alex (now 19) to the time he was 4, I was a single Mom on welfare. In fact, I was homeless when I was pregnant; bunking at my sister's house or my parent's until my Section 8 application was approved. I moved into my apartment the day I came home with Alex. Four years later, I was a graduate with an Associate's Degree in Electro-Mechanical Technology with a $15/hour job.  How did I do it? I had a plan.  Here's the outline: 1. NO drugs or alcohol.  I did not take nor sell drugs.  Very little alcohol passed my lips.  Why? Alcohol and drugs are bad. No getting arou...

 It's getting more and more difficult to visit with my In-Laws' mostly due to their unwillingness enforce the rules we all agreed upon. Apparently my Brother-In-Law feels that he is above such a rule.  He needs to abide by the same rules that the rest of the family abides by: The one that states that NO POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS ALLOWED! He took a very decent visit with my Mom and Dad-In-Law and turned it ugly by opening his big, fat,  mouth. When my Husband responded to his instigations, he just sat there with that self-depreciating smugness that I wanted to punch off. Yeah, I'm still ticked off about that and it's been 2 days.  I'm sick of rightfully holding my tongue but having to put up with someone elses' incoherent ramblings. I don't care which side of the political spectrum you're on. When the rule was made, it was for a very good reason. What makes the situation all that more telling is that we were in church at the time, enjoying a potluck lun...

Randomly selected photos from my collection.  Actually, this one is from my FB stash.  My computer had a nervous breakdown and we had to wipe Windows and re load.  All my family pictures are on a separate hard drive way over on the other side of the room. Winter driving in Wisconsin.....hmmm what can you say? Notice the backup of cars in the top one? This happens more than you think. One stupid move by a semi-truck driver and the rig jackknifes' into both lanes. On a wintry day like that one, it's just best to say 'screw it' and stay home.  Not much is that important to risk your life for. 

Thanksgiving for a lot of people this year is going to be more of a challenge than years past.  Not a lot to be thankful for when you've lost those things that make you feel secure in your life like health insurance and your retirement savings. Yes, I've lost both this year, BUT it allows me to focus on other issues to be thankful for.  I must remember that having the ability to use my intelligence to gather the needed information to get things I need is much more important than having those things given to me. . (Pic: Dave saluting me at Leinenkugel's this summer)  I know that keeping healthy, exercising and eating proper foods will keep me pretty darned healthy.  We've joined the Y and are participating in group exercise sessions to gain strength, maintain flexibility and keep the immune system high. Our family grows their own vegetables and consumes a large amount of locally harvested venison.  Venison is much leaner than beef - which helps...

Random Monday: The day I close my eyes and click on a picture from my 'Family' album. Do you realize how hard it is to actually take  a picture of the moon with a digital camera? It's crazy hard, especially if you don't stabilize your arms on something. According to the pic, this was taken 7/20/2010 at 8:34 pm. It's a nice juxtaposition of the light on the clouds with the light on the moon.

As Christmas time is approaching, my mind sets on all kinds of knit objects that I could give to my family and friends.  The problem is, very few of those people actually want  any gift that is not purchased from a store.  A few years ago, I spent 6 months spinning and knitting countless hats, scarves, shawls and mittens only to get some really nasty feedback.  Oh sure, to my face on Christmas day it was all "Thanks!" only to be told later on how they hated what I had made.  Not all hated them, some just put them away and never use them. It's a real downer to see something you've spent 6 months on laying on a top of a of pile mending in a dusty corner of a sewing room. This cowl is a pattern called, 'Pretty thing'. I knitted it in a hand spun alpaca. That's when the intended recipient whom shall remain nameless (it's family) stated that she's allergic to alpaca. That was after she pronounced an allergy to pretty much every fiber out there. Oh I ...

I've been working on the family genealogy for about a decade now.  It's something that I was full-bore onto about 5 years ago, but now that I've hit a few roadblocks, I've slowed down.  A few tips for the new genealogist: 1. Obits are still the best thing for finding out things.  Fortunately for me, my family has stuck around this area of South-Central WI for about 3 generations now. My local library has the Janesville Gazette on microfilm all the way back to the 1890's. I get cranky at the fact that a female ancestor was called, "Mrs. So&So" instead of her maiden name, but that's the thing that can frustrate you fast. 2. If you have the $, sign up for a year of Ancestry.com but remember to USE it. I used to set up Sunday's as my ancestor day and troll the databases looking for info. 3. Talk to your older relatives about their memories before their mind slips.  My Grandma on my Mother's side used to drop little tidbits that would tic...

I did reasonably well for a person who ignores her blog for months at a time. So I'm going to go random for today's effort: 1. Saw the remake of True Grit.  My Dad's a huge John Wayne fan and I've sat through the original dozens of times.  I don't like Glen Cambell's take on Le Boeuf.  It's 'dandified' as I say.  Matt Damon played the role better. The remake was excellent. It's a talent of the director to set out the story without allowing emotion. He just sets the scenes and lets the audience emote. Jeff Bridges played an excellent Rooster Cogburn, but Hailee Steinfeld, who played Mattie was excellent in her role. 2. We missed the last part of Harry Potter in the theatres again.  No spoilers please. I'm thinking I've got to go buy it so I can sob piteously in the privacy of my own home. 3. River Tam, the scarf is done and as a present to the world it is free.   If you are on Ravelry, the link is  HERE . My friend Kerri dyed it in...

I quit smoking in 2008.  Many smokers are still jealous of that fact, more because I just stopped than anything else.  No pills, no gum, no anything. I just quit.  BUT there are days like yesterday that I would LOVE LOVE LOVE a smoke.  Stressful days, frustrating days. Yes, to grab a Marb menthol lights 100 and just inhale......... *On a off-topic note: While trolling for this pic, I weeded through a lot of pics from a lot websites.  Man, are there some militaristic, vehemently anti-smoking web sites!  Dudes, WE GET IT.  All of the smokers I know struggle with their addiction EVERY. DAY. Just effing stop with the overwhelming guilt trip, K? You're not helping. One anti-smoking group came to the public schools and  had my Granddaughter CONVINCED that her mom would blow up from smoking.  She was crying, begging for Mom to stop in absolute fear that Mom's head would blow off.  Just EFFING STOP scaring kids too.** I've got ...

I remembered it actually, but there were many things on my mind: Ok, not so random as I had to go to the 'Alex" specific area. Alex is on the left, his buddy Joe is on the right.  Dressed up as Organization 13 from Kingdom Hearts game.  BTW - if you want to make this for yourself - use the "Neo" coat pattern. My dear son Alex was 19 yesterday! He seems a bit contemplative about it, more than I was at that time. Happy Birthday Son!!

I had a topic already in my mind but forgot it. Um. Oh well. Yesterday I was parked permanently on the recliner sleeping, shivering or aching.  The dreaded Flu found me.  Today I am much better, but taking it easy just to be sure. Random Monday instead: Hmmm interesting choice.  This is a picture of the display down at the library about a year ago.  Made by one talented knitter, it was great to see.  I remember now that she was standing beside me as I took the photo and invited me to Monday morning Knitting Group.  Unfortunately, I don't have a car to drive into town for that. 

Well, the furnace is replaced.  The old one is gone and we're basking in 68 degree warmth.  The fuel oil tank will be replaced tomorrow.  That one will be a challenge, but I am sure that the fuel oil dude will get it done. I was taking pictures outside this morning when the fire truck went by.  The town nearby is 2 miles to the left of this picture, and highway 81 is about 2 miles to the right of this picture.  So my road is a shortcut.  Oh and this road takes a 90 degree turn about 1/4 miles down the road. Many people don't negotiate it very well.

If I try to snuggle up close to you in the next few days, it's because the furnace is broken and they're going to have to replace it. Apparently furnaces just don't last 70 years.  This is another time when I am very grateful that I rent this farmhouse and don't own it. Also a good thing I knit a lot of warm things, right? 

Let's just make this a weekly thing; random picture from my 'family' picture folder.  Don't worry, nothing in there is inappropriate for children/adults/goats. So I closed my eyes and selected this one.  It's a nice picture from my front porch taken in late spring.  There's the marigold bed in front, and the wagon wheel with the bird feeder attached to the fence in back.  The County Road going through the picture is nicknamed "Roller Coaster road" for the large hills that make it a lot of fun to drive down. The field across the road was a hay field, turned to soy this year. Somewhere in my picture files I have a photo of a fox jumping in that hay field. It was just fascinating to watch the fox hunting whatever rodent was in the field.

Ok, so we are back from the In-Laws'.  It was 2 1/2 days of relaxing and celebrating.  My husband's uncle Chuck and Aunt Carrie celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  It was great to see them and their family; a more easy-going portion of the Brauners. Back at home there is the same 'ol same 'ol.  Sewing to do, food to cook, knitting to get finished.  Preparations are underway for winter, and I fear it will be a downright cold one.  More knitted socks will be in order, I guess. And, I'm guessing that my next real design will be for me: It's a Red Angry Bird Earflap hat.  I saw one at Kwick Trip for sale.  I just could not justify the $17 for it.  That's when Dave said, "I know someone who could probably knit that."  Yeah............... .

River Tam is finished.  There is a test-knitter copy of the pattern for those who want to test-knit the pattern. If you wish to test knit, please let me know of any errors.  And, PLEASE let me know of any issues with the directions BEFORE you attempt to knit further.  It just causes less grief that way. CLICK on this link to go to Google Docs  for the pattern. Enjoy!

"It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sommbitch or another. Ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds 'Firefly'  Episode: Jaynestown.

I closed my eyes and randomly selected a photo from my "Family" photo file.  This one is of my Husband, Dave and my Sister, Tami watching a bonfire at our house.  Taken about a year ago, since it was one with a bunch of other pictures that had Alex and his Girlfriend (now EX-GF) in them. How time has flown since then.  Oh my Sister is fine. So is Dave.  There's another big pile of branches and leaves to burn soon as the wind dies down. 

Well, actually I've been on the project diet now for about a week.  What's a project diet? No new knitting projects will be started until the 10 or so are done. So two are finished, but they were pretty close to being done.  The next ones to be done are going to be more of slog. That stupid Featherweight in Hunter's Orange needs a collar and arms The Gloucester Coat is miles of endless stockinette to finish off the back, THEN onto sleeves and collar The Dockside sweater: 7" of k1p1 ribbing....endless ribbing.  I've got like an 1" done. Bee Fields Shawl: 2nd motif 3/4 done.  Need to count repeats then start the last one. Aoelian: Like on the 2nd part, need to finish + get more beads.  NEVER try to bead this whole flipping. You'll regret it. Silk Shawl: frog or finish? If I try to finish I will need to spin more silk. Well that's about it for knitting.  The family went to the apple orchard last week so I've been baking pies and apple c...

So for most people, taking a shower is a quick and easy thing to do.  Here in the country, it's a bit more of a chore: 1. Sweep floor clean of bugs, leaves and litter (the litter box is in the bathroom) 2. Divest yourself of clothing and head on over to the shower. 3. Open shower curtain, fluff it a bit. 4. Walk over to toilet, grab a few squares of tp and head on back to shower. 5. Use tp to grab whatever creepy-crawly thing is in the shower stall. Today it was a worm-like creature but could have been in the centipede family as it had many legs. 6. Flush creepy crawly down toilet. 7. Take shower. Which creepily reminds me of the time I inadvertently took a shower with one of those icky long legged centipedes. Good thing I am legally blind without my glasses on, or I would have seen the 3" thing crawling up my thigh.  That would have led to screaming, hysterics and probably a destroyed shower curtain. Out in the country, humans are the minority.  You learn not...

kitty pile Originally uploaded by ruddawg Ah the good old days when all 3 cats would stick together. Now they are grumpy, old and Tigger looks like he has mange. I'll be glad when the fleas are all dead. Every. last. one.

 When I was in High School, many years ago, MTV WAS music videos.  And one of them was Bruce Springsteen's War. Before the music starts, Bruce says, " In 1985, blind faith in your leaders or in anything, will get you killed."   Let me repeat that quote:  " In 1985, blind faith in your leaders or in anything, will get you killed ." Here it is, 2011 and it is still true. Still there are those who will just do whatever someone on TV, Newspaper or Radio tells them to. Those media people do not know anyone whom they are attacking personally, and they've got their own agenda. Their agenda is to divide this country into ' us ' and ' them '. Why? Well, it's easier to kill the 'them ' when you can convince a group of people they are less-than-human. I miss my friends . I miss those friends that I found funny, intelligent, and great to hang around with.  I can't hang around them anymore because they chose to believe some nameless...

Packers, Undefeated! 

This is Tyler 'Spud', our youngest kitty.  He's a spud all right.  Today he's been hanging out on my lap while I spend the day resting.  My asthma started up last night and would. not. stop.  At 3 am I found myself on that same recliner struggling to breathe while I coughed up a lung. So any effort to do something well, productive went out the window at 3 am. I've decided on a project diet when it comes to knitting: no more projects started until the ones I've got on the needles are finished.  Two out of 9 are finished but there are three sweaters in that queue. 

So Dave and I watched the third movie in the Transformers line last night. If I were to give it a star rating, it would be 2 stars out of 5.  Why? Well, let's go through those: Megan Fox IS the chick in the Transformers. This other lady? Well first of all, you look like you could break her in 1/2 with a strong wind. OK, so I didn't even know  who Megan Fox was until like last year, but she made the Transformers movie. And who runs through an entire battle scene in high heels? So lame The battle scene was like, 9 times longer than it really needed to be.  So much so that 1/2 an hour into it, I was like, "Are they going to be done now?" Having a good guy AND a bad guy (this time in 2 different machines: the Primes) with the same color scheme really confuses you when you're watching the battle scenes. Okay *** Spoiler ALERT ***  This pylon/column thing glowing red is the key to destroying the bad guys. So ah...why is every GOOD guy NOT EVEN SHOOTING AT IT?!?!...

My Friend, Vicki started this - made me aware of     nablopomo which is National Blog Posting Month. The challenge is to blog once a day.  Yeah, I am aware that I missed like....4 days.  Is my life that interesting to blog once a day? I'm pretty sure some of it might be, but mostly no.  Yesterday's work was done quickly, so I decided to clean up my spot in the living room.  The recliner won't retract and I am sure Dave will need to take a look at it.  I'm a nester. My end of the couch has everything needed for a decent 4 hours of life without having to get up.  So it needed cleaning.  What led to me organizing yarn, what led to me cleaning out the whole yarn stash. I found many skeins of yarn I did not know I had, including lots of bits for the hexipuffs.  I feel obligated to add pictures to my posts, you know.  This was a sunrise a few weeks ago taken from my front porch. 

Hexipuffs are the new thing going in the knitting world.  Why? Well everyone who has knitted a sock has bits of sock yarn left over from them.  What do you do with them?  My first effort to get rid of them is the sock yarn blankie  which I started on a very late night a few years ago.  I blame the late hour for the fact that I'm knitting it wrong: Instead of a garter stitch blanket, mine is stockinette. That makes it look like fish scales.  Well, take a look: It gets the job done at using up scraps too small in yardage for anything else. Right now it's big enough to use as a throw on the couch. But now we've got the bee keepers quilt:   This blanket is made from little separate puffs stuffed with stuffing.  I'm using wool to stuff mine, since I've got like..tons of it around (read the last post) My total puff count right now is about 45. The consensus is to make a throw is about 300 puffs, a queen sized blanket would be 900+.  T...

The weekend before last was the WI Sheep and Wool festival. This is the one day a year where I go just absolute bonkers for anything fibery. This year, I snagged a fleece from WhataviewFarm in Phelps, WI that is a Polypay/East Friesian/Dorset cross. It's got a great crimp with about a 3" staple. I confess to enjoying the process of turning fleece to yarn, so this was a great thing to find such a nice fleece to work with. For the last few weeks I've been washing, carding and spinning up yarn in the hopes to get enough to knit a sweater. So on to pictures! This is the fleece drying after a wash in hot soapy water with a hot water rinse. The washed and dry fleece in a paper bag waiting to be carded. Now I usually just use that pet brush to open up locks to spin with my most beloved spindle; the mini-Bosworth. This is the spindle that I want with me at all times. I estimate that I can get about 125 yards on a spindle before taking it off. After ...

You ever have the problem when you flip back in the recliner that it's just too far back for your head? I get that all the time. After too many large pillows that just make my head too hot in these summer months, I've devised the dogbone pillow. The design is pretty simple: Take a tube and make the ends puffier than the middle. I took some yarn that I spun up in a wool/cashmere blend from WoolyRhinoceros and spun it to a fingering-type yarn (also could be called sock-weight) Want the pattern? Here it is: Dogbone Pillow by Ruddawg Designs Yarn: Handspun wool/cashmere blend in yellow : fingering weight Needles: Size 4 double-pointed needles Other items needed; Stitch markers (10), yarn needle, scissors. Gauge: We don't need no stinkin' gauge. It's a pillow for crying out loud! The wider ends keeps the pillow in place and keeps your shoulders from shrugging and getting sore. The pillow can be stuffed with whatever is good for the knitter...

The third installment of the Ladies of Firefly series actually was not intended to be River Tam. I woke up from a nap on Easter to think to myself what if I knitted cables with a laceweight mohair in the shape of the Clapotis? What would it look like? So I made some notes and started knitting. I had purchased this skein of Cascade Kid Seta just because it was soft and pretty. Knitters will tell you, sometimes you get yarn and it sits in your stash until it speaks to you. Well that Kid Seta was screaming to me I guess! After the first skein was finished, there was some question as to whether or not to extend it for 2 skeins. It actually needed it, but I just didn't feel like knitting on it any more. Now I've gotten into a 'I should finish stuff' mode. There are about 4 projects that have been hibernating in project bags waiting for me to finish them: The featherweight sweater, the Gloucester coat, the River Tam and another Strawberry Hat. I frogged the hat. Screw that...

The family has been experiencing a lot of changes lately, and I've not been knitting nearly enough! Our son Alex has graduated from High School and was preparing to enter Tech School for a welding degree. Everything was all purty and quiet here and then he got a text - from his girlfriend - who broke up with him - in a text. So 2 years of relationship ends in a text (can you tell that's a real annoying point for me, the text?) and my son is left bereft, hurt and without a real need to stay in this podunk little town. Two weeks ago, he announces, "I want to go into the Navy." Okay! This option was floated about in the last few years for many reasons: 1. We've got no real $$ saved up for college. 2. His grades are not really indicative of ambition towards a college goal. 3. This kid can code computer programs IN HIS SLEEP, and needs a place where he can expand on that knowledge is a more structured environment than college. College has too many distractions (girlz...

Let's start with Mango. Mango's taken on the personality of a cranky wild-child. He wanted to go planking, so sure...we went planking. Ok, he planked, I took pictures. He then noticed my frustration at a certain child who is on the cusp of graduating High School. That child has become so unfocused that he's almost useless. If you tell him something, you might as well staple a post-it note to his forehead. NO, I won't staple it...maybe some duct tape? Mango insisted on head butting him to remind him for the 4th time to take the compost bucket down to the heap. That's when Mango lost his button eyes. So I sewed them back on. Mango then announced that he needed a friend. Stuffed animal creation is actually ideal for stressful situations. Great for ADD: Mango and Papaya aren't really that chummy yet. Mango's ticked because I haven't given him a tail yet. Papaya's eyes are embroidered so they won't fly off in a fit of anger. Graduation: Yeah. I...

I whipped up Mango in about a week. Yes, making a stuff animal is fiddly and involves a lot of attaching. That part would've gone better with a yarn needle, but I couldn't find it. I used a crochet hook. Mango and Dave. My relationship with Mango has caused a bit of concern with Dave and Alex who think I've totally lost it. Maybe I have, but not without good reason: The wrist is inflamed and that means doctor visits. I can't knit, sew or do anything else with a bum wrist. I can however, play with Mango: Mango is planking on the roof of the car. On the bird feeder. Sitting for his glamour shot. I talk to Mango, and I tote him everywhere. At least I'm not sleeping with him....