Nici Knits!

The kids came over for supper tonight, and Nici started a blanket for Baby Thor (or Thorina). She's doing a great job, and I'm so proud of her!
I taught her to knit several years ago and she knit a blanket for her impending baby brother. She hasn't knit anything since then, but it came right back to her as soon as she picked up the needles tonight.

Asleep on the Bike
From the comments:
CountryVariety said...
WOW - that is awesome - you can knit and SLEEP on the bike ! okay now I am worried that you'll fall off - see now you made me worry too much....
and
e's knitting and spinning blog said...
Sleeping Becky!?! Please I just am having nightmares of you sliding right off the back!

Aww shucks, you guys, thanks for worrying about me! Falling asleep on the back of the GoldWing is actually quite a common thing. Here's a thread from the GL1800 Riders' Forum where it's discussed: http://www.gl1800riders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24633&highlight=asleep.
The topic comes up pretty regularly during the riding season. As I mentioned in the thread, Rich always says it's not fair for me to sleep on the back of the bike because I won't let HIM sleep on the front!
Honestly, I don't sleep hard on the bike. I usually just doze (sometimes I snore!), so any unusual movement will wake me. The seat is wide and comfortable, the backrest wraps around me and comes up quite high, there are adjustable foot pegs so I can put my feet up a bit, and I have armrests. It's relatively secure.

In knitting news:
I'm working on the re-do of Haley's Roses. Just turned the heel and picked up the gusset stitches. I like the narrow stripes on the cuffs much better. I have to make the change in the pattern, then will send it off to a test-knitter and should have it ready for sale by mid-February. I'll show you a picture later.

Oh, an advertisement for anyone close enough to make it: the annual Pajama Sale is next Saturday morning at the Davis Mercantile in Shipshewana (if you're close enough to make it you already know about Shipshewana, LOL). There will be special deals from 6 am to 7 am for everyone who comes shopping in P.J.s! I've seen lots of 20% off and 30% off sale ads for the event posted all over the building. I don't know what our store will offer yet, but I've heard rumors and it sounds good!

Knitting on the BigYellowBike (BYB)
The moderator of one of my online knitting groups asked to see pictures of me knitting on the bike. I've tried, but I can't knit and hold the camera at the same time, LOL! I'll have to have one of our riding friends take one for me some time.
Here are a couple of pictures I took on our trip to North Carolina last fall for Wings Over the Smokies (WOTS). I knit three hats for the South Bend domestic assault shelter while on the road.
This was hat number one. The picture was taken on State Road 9 just a little south of LaGrange, Indiana, on the first day of the trip. The odd, ropy thing coming up from the center of the picture is my yarn. Knitting on the BYB is most challenging because I have to pull out just a small amount of yarn at a time. Oddly, the wind currents on the bike cause the yarn to blow forward instead of back! If I pull out too much, it blows up around Rich's face...not a good thing.


This was hat number two. Here we're in Kentucky on the third day of the trip. That's our friend Bash and his wife on the beautiful yellow bike ahead of us. We got to know them through the GoldWing Riders' Forum. Rich and I met up with them at their home in southern Ohio, and travelled the rest of the way to WOTS with them. What a nice couple! He'd hoped to have a large number of BYBs travel to the rally together, but we couldn't get anyone else's route to match up with ours.

The hardest thing about knitting on the bike is yarn vomit...you know, when you pull out more yarn and the entire center of the ball comes out. When that happens, I have Rich lean forward a bit and tuck the extra between his back and the backrest, and re-wind it.

I only do mindless knitting on the bike so I can still enjoy the scenery. I've knit several pair of socks and a few hats while on the road. If I'm not knitting, I'm usually sleeping...sorry, no pictures of that, either!

Something's up!
There's news: our son called the other night, and when I answered the phone he said, "Hi, Grandma!"
He and his wife are going to be presenting us with our first grandchild somewhere around September 22nd! There's a little counter thingy at the bottom of this page where you can keep track of the days until little "Thor" (Nick's choice of prenatal names) arrives.
We appreciate all good thoughts and prayers for an easy pregnancy and a healthy, happy baby.

Time to get out the baby knitting books...

Tag! I'm it!

Madalyn tagged me with a meme. Here you go:
4 Jobs you have had in your life — (best to worst) Elementary-school library aide, paint department at Montgomery Ward, U.S. Census ennumerator, Agricultural irrigation parts warehouse.

4 Movies you could watch over and over — The Sound of Music ( the little bald-headed violinist on the left side of the orchestra in the scene after "So Long, Farewell" was my uncle!), Field of Dreams, It's a Wonderful Life, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

4 Places you have lived — White Pigeon, Michigan, Swansboro, N.C., Middlebury, Indiana, White Pigeon again, but half-a-mile north of the first time.

4 TV Shows you love to watch — CBS Sunday Morning, House, The OC, American Idol.

4 Places you have been on Vacation — London, England, Disney World, Cape Hatteras, N.C., Niagara Falls.

4 Websites you visit daily — Yahoo! mail, GoldWing Riders Forum, The Yarn Harlot, Stitches of Violet.

4 of your favourite foods — Pizza, chocolate, fresh fruit, chocolate (I can TOO use it twice!).
4 Places you would rather be right now — Can't think of any!

4 Bloggers you are tagging — Chelle, Sarah, Laura, E.

Haley's Roses
This is a new pattern I'm working on. I'm calling it "Haley's Roses" in memory of our little great-niece, Haley Rose, who died just two months after her second birthday. She was the victim of neuroblastoma, a particularly vicious soft-tissue cancer.

The socks are coming along nicely, although I think I'm going to change the pattern so that the main color of the cuff is the same as the main part of the sock, with just a narrow band of the contrasting color at top and bottom. Yarn is Opal Uni-solid on size 0 needles.
Tell me what you think!
My Jaywalkers have been on vacation while I work on this design. I should be able to get back to them soon.

Feeling Sheepish?
I don't know how this happened. I didn't set out to collect sheep.
This year, while decorating our Christmas tree, I thought it would be fun to put a couple of sheep in with the regular stuff. Just one or two would be cute.
But I kept finding more, and more, and more. How did I get so many?
I guess I just picked them up here and there. There's the one I bought at Harrod's of London in December, '04, and the sweet little guy with the zip-off sheepskin that my mom gave me years ago. There are two, count 'em, two Lambchops. The newest ones are the two "sheep-herds" at the top. They have the cutest tiny sandals on their dangly feet!
I seem to have developed a sheep collection.

Sock Blockers
I've had a couple of comments on my sock blockers. I got them from Rosemary Chapman, aka 'Chappy' and she has given me permission to pass along her email address to anyone who's interested. Mine are "Wooly the Ram" but she has several other designs. You can contact her at: chappywoman(at)yahoo(dot)com. She also makes beaded stitch markers and designs knitting patterns.
I love my blockers!

There has been knitting...
Here is a picture to prove it: Jaywalker socks, Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Socknitter's Fall Sunset, past the heel turn and into the gusset decreases














I found the 'real' RedSweaters.org button, and have changed the icky one I designed (see sidebar). I am sad and more than a little ashamed to say I have not completed one red sweater for the installation, although I had one nearly done before Christmas. I can't find it now. sigh. I am even more sad to say there will probably still be a need for more sweaters in the months to come.

Yikes...


The JenLa blog is having a meme to see who can create the ugliest avatar. I am unworthy. This is ugly. It's very pink. She's wearing cowboy boots and cutoffs. She has a poodle. JenLa's avatars, however, are in a whole other class of ugly! I think I'll stick with my mildly weird South Park avatar. Here's a link to the avatar-creation place. Go. Create. Have fun.

Edited 1/5/06: I've deleted this avatar from Yahoo. because it scared me when my email account opened. No chance of seeing the poodle dance now, sorry.

Opal Lovers, Unite!
I have, for some time, belonged to an online group of folks who love to knit with Opal yarns. The forum has recently changed to a read-only newsletter, with contests, yarn swaps, and other fun stuff. The group is called "Opal Chatters" and you can join by going here: Opal Chatters or by clicking the button that will soon be in the sidebar. Come on in!
Not much in other news here. Some knitting, some housework, some gainful employment. The Christmas tree is still up, and likely to be up until this weekend. We haven't seen the sun here in days, and it's cold, wet and dreary, but we are warm and dry and well-fed, and spring will be here in (almost) no time. If I say it often enough, it WILL come true.
The new KnitPicks catalog came today, and I am successfully resisting new stash acquisition. Going to go knit now.

Comments, I get comments...
Laura said: riding bikes in that weather? aack! nice to learn you guys haven't had too much "frontal lobe shrinkage" !![my dh found a clipping, he has in his wallet that says men over 40 suffer from loss of sense of humor due to frontal lobe shrinkage! for real!]

Well, the ones who rode didn't have all that far to come, and they were pretty well bundled up. Some riders have electrically-heated clothing -- pants, jacket liners, socks, gloves -- that plug right into the bike. Rich says the fairing and the mirror wings (little pieces of plastic that bolt onto the mirrors) on the Goldwing do a good job of protecting him, and only his fingers and toes get really cold. It was a relatively warm day, for January in Michigan, almost 50 degrees.

Laura also said...
ps- tell me if the stashalong permits swaps!!

The Stashalong rules say this: (2) You have 3 months and during that time you cannot add to your stash in any way(things ordered before January 1 but not yet delivered do not count--hence the early warning--get it out of your systems, ladies). Of course realistically there is no way to police this, so the honor system is in place.
Technically, a swap would not "add" to your stash, I guess!
Later!

Stashalong
I have decided to try very hard not to buy any more yarn in the next three months. The store where I work is going to winter hours for January-March, which means I will lose 25% of my pay for that period. Yikes. So I will be watching this Stashalong and, I hope, participating. I certainly have enough yarn to do it!

Sunday Rich and I met some of our riding friends in Coldwater, Michigan, for breakfast, then drove together up to Whitmore Lake to meet a bunch of the folks we visit with on the GL1800 Riders' Forum.
Yep, some of them rode their bikes in, but we went in the car. Good company, tasty food, nice day!