Not Much To It

This should be a fairly brief post. One of those fun random posts that can have anything in them, so here goes.

I had an interesting time at the farm today. It rained on and off all day, so Mrs. Perry had me sweeping the transportation building to make things easier for the cleaning lady tomorrow. It took about an hour, though it would have taken less time had Dan not come in with a tour. I had to detour around them and wait a few times as they were in the area I planned to sweep. I then went back to the office, and tried to work on my Demeter Camisole (every time I type that I end up thinking of the musical Cats).

Despite Mrs. Perry's prediction that the rain would keep people away, another tour came in, a family from Ironton, Ohio and their relatives from Utah. I went around with them and a guide I had not met before named Nancy. She was ok, but I think I like working with Dan more. That took the rest of the day. I then decided to go eat at Griffiths and Feil's, an old fashioned soda fountain and pharmacy. I had the Berkley Turkey, a turkey sandwich with a slice of pineapple, cream cheese and sweet mustard. It was really good. I would have liked some ice cream as well, but had to go to work.

While at work, I cast on for a new pair of socks TAAT. It is some of Cyndi Bolt's sock yarn in the Grass and Violets colorway. The needles are Knitpicks Harmony 40' circs, size US 1.5. They are perfect for TAAT socks. The cable is so flexible, you don't even need to soak it to get the kinks out, you can work with it right out of the package. After reading some of the posts on Ravelry, I figured that I could knit from one ball, if I was careful, so I cast on Cookie A's Monkeys. The variegated yarn should look pretty good. Pictures to follow when I remember my camera.

Deliciously Appropriate

As mentioned in a previous post, I recently got a job as a tour guide at Heritage Farm Museum and Village, a locally owned museum and bed and breakfast. While that may sound a bit strange, it actually works out quite well.

The owner's, Mr. and Mrs. Perry opened the museum fourteen years ago in an old dairy barn on their property. About twelve years ago, Mr. Perry began buying old log structures around the area, moving to the farm and eventually built the farm into what it is today, with 17 buildings detailing life in Appalachia from about 1800 to the present.

Most of the building house the museum itself, but five building have been turned into inns: Applebutter Inn, Hollyberry Inn, Woodbury Inn, Strawberry Inn and Blackberry Inn. There is also a church that is very popular for wedding, and if fact one of the other guides, Dan, is a minister and often presides over the weddings.

Somehow, it just seem so appropriate to be sitting on the front porch of the Welcome Center, knitting for myself or for my family. Admittedly, the pioneer women living in these builds when they were first built would not have been using purple pastel acrylic/bamboo mix yarn on metal circular needles, but still, the connection is there. They are not forgotten.

As for the knitting itself, I have finished the decreases of the Demeter Camisole and am preparing to begin increasing again for the bust. Also, I am working the toe decreases for the toddler socks for my niece (which niece will depend on which one they fit).

New

I have many new things happening, so I will write a (hopefully) interesting post about them.

The main new thing is my new job at Heritage Farm Museum and Village, a local history museum dedicated to raising interest and awareness of Appalachian culture. It is therefore right up my alley. I walked on last February and asked for a tour. As it turned out, they were doing some renovations, so no tours were available. I then got to talking about volunteering for the festival they hold every year on the first Saturday in May. I will be demoing drop spindling in the progress building, one of the main buildings at the farm. I then asked if they were hiring tour guides. As it turned out, they were, due to one guide having triple-bypass surgery, and another having knee replacement surgery.

I spoke to one of the owners, Mrs. Perry and she said that they would send me and application. Well, a few weeks later, I got the application, and a phone call from Mrs. Perry about coming in to talk about working and go around with some of the different guides. While there on Wednesday, they asked me to fill out some paperwork. It was the W-2 forms for my taxes on my paycheck.

Another new thing is my new car. About two weeks ago, my dad and I went to go look at used cars. The plan was to start in Milton and stop at the different used-car dealerships in Barboursville and Huntington. We checked the place in Milton, but didn't find anything interesting. Daddy then mentioned a small dealership near the Huntington Mall called C&C Used Car Brokers. In their lot was a little '99 Pontiac Sunfire. For an eleven year old car, it was in very good shape.

Well, after a lot of running to the bank where I took out a loan to get the car, home to get Mamaw Mary as co-signer, back to the bank and then back to the dealership, I drove home in my new (used) car. Pictures will be added to the blog tomorrow when it is daylight.

Another new thing is that I am currently knitting two projects that are different and new techniques. One is a camisole knit from the bottom up in the round. It is call the Demeter Camisole from the Sensual Knits book. Only, instead of knitting in the very expensive yarn they call for in the book, I am using NaturallyCaron Spa, in the colorway Berry Frappe. It looks more purple than the blue shown on the site. So far, that is going good. I had to frog my first attempt when I twisted the cast on edge, then ran out of yarn in the long tail, and had to start over again.

The other new technique is knitting two socks on one long needle. Called Magic Loop, it was developed by a designer name Melissa Morgan-Oakes, in this book. I think I will like this tehnique, because it eliminates second sock syndrome, because both are finished at the same time. Right now I am simply working on the sample toddler socks, but hope to get to a more complex pattern soon.