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...