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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

And cookies.

The first email came on April 14th.
     The power will be out on April 19th from 9 to 1...


#$%^, I said, because I am prone to say such things.

I dove for the calendar. HA! I leave on the 15th for a week! I will miss the power outage!
Score one for the good guys!

The second email came on the 15th.
Power outage postponed. Date to be determined.


#$%&.

The third email came on the 20th, while I was ensconced in the dubious safety of the Maine North Woods, sans electricity, running water, or sanity.
     The power outage has been rescheduled for the 27th, from 9 to 1. Plan accordingly.

And I would have, had I been able to access my email. I wouldn't have come back to the island.

I did not see the email, however, until late in the evening of the 24th, safely ensconced in the dubious safety of my living room, where, slightly delerious from the scalding hot shower from which I had recently emerged (the first in gulp 5 days), I was relishing the indoor plumbing, electricity, and strong cell phone signal. No wine necessary.

#$%^, I said, again, because I really like the word.

I was left with no choice but to Prepare For The Power Outage.
Monday and Tuesday were frantic days filled with a school board meeting, laundry, and filling water jugs. And cookies. Because I read once that you can survive anything if you have cookies.

On Tuesday, I wrote a note on the whiteboard on the fridge, where I was unable to pass without the desperate words "POWER! OUT! WED!!!!" frantically warning me to BE READY on WEDNESDAY.
I added it to ical, with an audible alarm set for 1/2 hour before the appointed time.

I told ical to send me an email at 7am, to keep me alert and ready.
And I went to bed Tuesday night, fraught with dread.

I woke up this morning, and packed the kids off for a field trip. (Yup, I let my kids go off the island today, on a field trip, without me. There will be wine, later.)
I opened the Post Office at 8am on the nose, and, armed with the knowledge that I had one hour, hit the ground running.
I dove into the paperwork I normally do on a Wednesday morning: deposit, payroll, accounting, stamp order.
I kept one eye on the clock, while working at a feverish pace.
Finally, I was down to two tasks, both of which required photocopies, when, boooooooooop.
At 8:52, the power went out.

Nooooo!
Where was the alarm I set? The email?
In my haste to get my paperwork started, I never turned on the laptop.

I was *this* close to getting it all done in time.
Oh, well.

I have the entire afternoon to myself, all the housework and laundry done, and no kids to pick up from school.
And no electricity.

It's just me, a spoon, and a jar of Nutella.


p.s. The power came back on just before 12:30. Now it's just me, the spoon, the Nutella, and Pride and Prejudice. Heaven!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Adamas, blocked

I've decided there is no possible way to chose a favorite when it comes to blocked lace.

It's All Good.


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Dare I even think it??

(Heaven help me,)
The next one should have beads...

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

And the fun continues!

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Oops. This pic was taken before I fixed that wonkiness on the right side.


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Lace knitting and the subsequent blocking feeds my OCD tendencies like nothing else in this world.

I want to start another lace project RIGHTNOW, but I am knee-deep in a couple of baby sweaters that have been percolating for a while.

Ones that involve worsted weight yarn.
And intarsia.
And charts.

That's where this guy comes in. He may not block lace for me (coughyetcough), but he can draw.
I can draw stick figures, and Snoopy's head. That is all.
This guy, he can draw anything. So I make him draw out what I want, and graph it on tracing paper.

Yeah, it's Old School, but it works.

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He still had to take out the trash later that evening, however.

Oh, how I love to knit baby sweaters in worsted weight yarn! So much can be accomplished in such short time!

This was knit in the round to the armpit, then straight to facilitate the intarsia design. In two days.

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We sat and counted last night: these two sweaters will be the 9th and 10th Buoy Sweaters I've knit for fishermen's kids. In each case, I've used their Dad's buoy color.
Did you know that every lobster fisherman has his own distinct buoy color or pattern? Their buoys must also be marked with their individual number as well.

These two sweaters are for a friend's grandsons, in his buoy colors.
This friend is the same age as my Big Guy. And he is a grandfather.

And that is why, The Big Guy keeps telling me, there will not be a Thing Three.


In a bit of Knit Fail, I had to rip out the Breaking Hearts cuff. I'm sure it was Karma's retribution for starting the KAL early.

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Love STR...but not medium weight. Not for socks.

I will find some other project for this yarn.

In the meantime, I've re-started in some Beyond Basic Knits (BBK) fingering weight merino, in a color called Water Lilly.

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Very Spring-like!

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I had some trouble with the Twisted Garter edging on the cuff, though.
Doesn't it look better on the inside of the sock??
I may try to turn it inside out before I begin the chart, just for kicks.

Oh, look! It's snowing. Again.
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Happy Spring, everybody.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Crazy Hair Day

Due to some extremely cold temps during February vacation week, we elected NOT to cut Thing Two's hair. It turned out to be a very smart move, as we saw temps of -17 and -24. Brrrr.

As we don't take the kids out of school unless we absolutely must, he hasn't been off The Rock since.

He was happy as a pig in poop about this, when Crazy Hair Day came up:

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Lookit those eyelashes!!!


Also, nice greenish bruise on yer forehead there, kid.

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He never has any hair to do anything with, so this was a first, and BIGNEWSOHMYGOD in his world.

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We had to do CrazyFaces to go with CrazyHair.

But, as usual, She Who Has Long Hair had the most fun:
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Haha, this was fun to do!

On another note, the other day Thing Two said my hair looked like Wild Mike (from Back At The Barnyard).

I took it as the compliment I'm sure he meant it to be.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Newly Converted

It is entirely possible that I was hoping this would be a complete failure, given the amount of time it took to pin out each tiny little point of yarn on the edge of one of these lace shawls....

But....

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I am a believer.
I LOVE each section of lace in this pattern.

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Heh, you shoulda heard what I said to her to get that smile!


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This was so much fun to knit.
Though slightly less fun to block.

And, Charlize?

I could have done better there, I suspect.
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I may have over-blocked that lovely ribbed, ruffled edge, in my zeal to pin open those last two lace rows.
I may re-block her, and stop pinning at that edge.
Opinions, from the more experienced??  (Will it matter? Should I leave well enough alone?)

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The front edge is less stretched out. More flirty and ruffly.

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She tried so hard NOT to laugh. She is no match for my wittiness.


I have two more lace items to block, and I am actually looking forward to the task!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Full Circle

I grounded my Father last night.

My 66 year old Dad.

I was cuddling on the couch with two very clingy Things (who missed me after an overnight trip off).
It was 8pm.
I called my Dad. My 66 year old Father.

Who was out in a wild and crazy bar, after 11pm, possibly with wild and crazy friends.
On a Thursday! A SCHOOL night!
I may step this up, and take his keys...or, in his case, his BOARDING PASSES.

As soon as I figure out which State of our great nation he is currently playing in,
He's gonna get it!