Tuesday, September 27, 2011

More History


Thanks to Ann in NJ, I have found even more history videos. There are millions and millions of them. (well, 53). According to the comments after some of them, they were made by two teachers in Hawaii and they have been used by history teachers all over the country.

So in honor of the approaching Halloween season, I have posted the most gruesome one. (You're welcome.)

If you want to know all sorts of things about history, taught in a decidedly different way, go to You Tube and either learn something or kill a few hours, or both. I can't decide if they are entertainment mainly, or actually good teaching tools.

I report; you decide. Fair and balanced.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Does Anyone

see a mistake here? Of course not; I fixed it! With a lot of help from "Other Sally" (there are two Sallies-one who knits at the shop and one who knits and works at the shop. Those of us who didn't know her last name just shout Other Sally and she knows who we mean) at knit night last night. She had recently had the same problem and I benefited from her experience.
Now I can knit on. DH asked me if I learned anything from fixing the error--- which took almost all of last night's session. Why yes, I did. I learned to NEVER make this mistake again!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Does Anyone

See a mistake here?
I do. One of the cables goes over instead of under. DH says it's on the back of the sweater and no one will notice. But I know it's there and it will bug me. And I suspect younger daughter would notice it too and it will be---if I EVER finish it---her sweater.

But not to worry; I have a theory and a plan. I THINK that I can put the stitches on either side of the eight stitches involved on holders and then just un-knit those eight stitches, and re-knit them correctly. I think it might work.

I will take it with me to knit night tomorrow so that if I lose patience or get really, really upset, someone will stop me from throwing the whole thing across the shop or from ripping the whole thing back.

I hope.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Modern History Class?


I occasionally hear or read about the need for education to make things more interesting/entertaining for kids. Experts say that schools need to use modern technology to get the students' attention because teachers are now competing with all sorts of e-gadgets/social networking, and who knows what else. Of course, since I am a stodgy senior citizen, I can't figure out what is wrong with how I learned things in school---work, sometimes really hard work.

I came across this video about 1066 and the Norman Invasion and the Battle of Hastings (on Ravelry, of all places). Granted, the students will have 1066 embedded in their minds after watching this---but so do I and that was just from reading about it a million years ago.

I guess this is sort of entertaining, in an hypnotic, weird sort of way. But was it intended for the classroom?

It does make me laugh, though.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Hello? 911?

The girls and I refer to these contraptions, fearfully, not affectionately, as Dad's Kervorkian machines. His goal is to reattach the fan to the ceiling in my knitting/tv room and this is the system he has cobbled together to accomplish that. I am always present for these shenanigans because someone has to call 911.

So far, so good, except that the fan won't turn on. The Kervorkian machine has been disassembled, but it looks as if it might have to go up again.

Did I mention how WOBBLY it is??? And that I'm here to call 911?

Also, not one of the three ladders he has available to him will reach the ceiling in the family room, so it looks as if he will have to go off to Lowe's to rent one.

Mission. Creep.



[Update: The fan works and is quiet. One down; one to go.]

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Yummmmm.....


Thanks to the Pioneer Woman's website, I have just made what I am sure will be a delicious rhubarb cobbler. When I was at the store yesterday I came across some rhubarb and thought---Aha! Time for cobbler. I love rhubarb; my husband does not. He is out of town and I've made it all for meeee. Not that I would have to fight him for it. I called older daughter to check and see if she thought that a fruit cobbler would be appropriate for a breakfast meal and she said yes. (I know how to stack the deck.) Really, it's fruit; it's carbs; it's sugar; it's protein (one egg); what more do I need but coffee?

My parents grew rhubarb and it just occurred to me that I could do the same, but why deprive farmers of their income, I say. So I'll buy it and cook it and eat it and do my part for the economy.

I'm a saint.

Monday, September 12, 2011

A Blog

Kind of a weird concept, but you knitters and crocheters out there might enjoy this blog. Or something it. It's weird.


DIY


Not as much fun as HGTV would have you think.

We (and that IS the Royal We) have two projects going at once.

One is to replace drawers in the kitchen that have gone all wobbly and off center when we try to open and close them:

The new drawers were made to order, but don't seem to be the right size. That means adding shims or something to make them fit.
So that means a mess in the kitchen. For how long?

The next project is an example of the dreaded Mission Creep. The fan---missing in this photo---in the room where the TV is and where I usually knit, was making a terrible gronk, gronk, gronk
noise. The fan is 22 years old, and so we decided to replace it.


When we went to Home Depot to choose a fan, I found one I liked but it was too large for my knitting room.

Light bulb moment! Let's put it in the family room, which is the larger room, and take the one from the family room and put it in the knitting room, which is the smaller room. Brilliant!!! So now the family room is missing a fan as well. This is no small concern in the south, where even with air-conditioning, air needs to be constantly moving to keep us comfortable.

But something was wrong with the wiring in the long rod in the family room, and now dH has to go all the way to the ceiling to fix this. He doesn't own a tall enough ladder, so he borrowed one from a neighbor. We have ladders all over the place now.

In the knitting room:

In the hallway:
And we have stuff all over the place. The new blades:
The old but soon to be re-used blades:
The box, the plastic bags, the parts:


AND, much to the delight of my granddaughters, the EYE is still stuck to the ceiling.
The EYE has been on the ceiling since July and shows no signs of falling off. I hope the drawers and fans are installed sooner than the eye drops off because I have been told that that might never happen. It's really sticky...

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

And Now

I have finished another project. One of these socks has been without its partner for so long that I don't remember when I started on it. But now there are two. I love the yarn: Rio de la Plata, kettle dyed, 100% pure new wool from Uruguay. The yarn is soft and the colors are spun together in a really interesting way. If I were a spinner, I could probably tell you how, but I have no clue.

At last week's knit night, one of the knitters (Hi Deanna) showed us how she knits two socks at once on a 40-inch long circular needle. The way she described the method almost made sense to me; I think I could do it with a little coaching. But I can't decide which method is better psychologically. I used dpns for this pair of socks, and for a long time I had one sock completed. That's it. If I had used the circular needle method, I would have had two one-half socks completed. I don't know which outcome would bother/nag at me more.

And now for something completely different. This is a photo of some of the fire in the Austin, Texas area. This is a view from west of downtown looking east. Scary. Daughter says that there are so many fires that Austin is almost surrounded. Governor Perry cut the budget for volunteer fire departments, who are the first responders to 90% of wild fires in the state, by 75% this year. Seems like a bad idea now, but who would have thought that there could be such bad fires during fire season after the driest, hottest summer on record?

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Finally!

I've finished a project!!! It's the Clapotis (here on Ravelry) that I started in May. It's easy, fun and a great take-along project. The only change in the pattern from row to row comes before the first marker and after the last. The rest of the row remains the same, over and over. The rows on the back are purl rows. This took such a long time because I made it with Malabrigo sock yarn (Persia color).

I think this is the first thing I've finished in F.O.R.E.V.E.R.I'm working on this sweater for my younger daughter. Unlike the Clapotis, EVERY row in the 24-row repeat is different. I can't knit this at knit night because I can't concentrate well enough, and I doubt that I could recruit another knitter there to read every row to me so that I could work on it. They are nice people, but they expect to be able to work on their own knitting.

Maybe a bribe????