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.

Interesting Week

This week has been a dozy! Due to the bad weather, I was in a hotel all weekend and went to my first class of the Spring 2010 semester from there. I was a bit late and walked into a class that was is full swing. I grabbed a seat and started trying to catch up. The professor was talking about math problems. I suck at math and was not pleased. Plus, I could not for the life of me figure out what the stuff had to do with the subject I was taking: geology.

It was only at the end of class that I discovered there had been a schedule conflict and that was a statistics class! I then ended up haunting the science building for the next hour until my professor returned to his office. It turned out that the statistics class was in the wrong room. So I didn't miss anything. My next class was a few hours later, called HST 480Fashion and Gender, but it is mainly about the history and production of textiles. That is the class for me!

I have another large break between the textiles class and my next class, sociology. It sounds like that is going to be an interesting class. The Professor started off by showing a clip from the movie The Matrix, where Neo takes the red pill, and said we chose the red pill in deciding to take the class.

That was my last class for that day. I have the geology class Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the textiles class Monday and Wednesday and sociology on Monday. I have another class HST 428 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have had the professor who teaches it, Dr. Palmer, before. He is pretty cool and tries to make it interesting.

I got through class and was going to meet up with my dad. My birthday was last week and we were going to go to A.C. Moore and buy my birthday present, an electric ball-winder. I was driving on 5th avenue, and had the green light. I proceeded through the light and ended up being T-boned in the driver's side door by a car that had run the red light. We were both shook up, and she claimed that I had been the one who ran the light. There were no witnesses that came forward, so our insurance companies will have to sort things out.

I was lucky that I was driving the truck. The other woman, who is about my age, was driving a much lower vehicle. If I had been in a smaller car, or she had been in a larger one, I could have been hurt badly. As it turned out, I spent several hours in a neck brace in St. Mary's ER.

Also, my truck is probably totalled. It looked like the frame is bent. It is a good thing I got the refund from my tuition yesterday, because I may have to buy a new vehicle. Right now, I am playing musical cars with my mom and grandmother.

Full Circle

Big post due to recent craziness, starting just before Christmas. That weekend, I checked into a hotel because it was snowing like crazy and I was afraid that I would not be able to get to work. I ended up in the hotel from Saturday morning to Monday morning. And on Saturday morning, while still at work, I got a call from my mom that my grandmother had fallen down the stairs. Mamaw Mary was in a wreck in the early 90s and has a lot of problems with her right leg. So, I was plenty worried that she was badly hurt. Luckily, she was only bruised and banged up. She didn't actually fall down the stairs so much as she slide down them on her rear end.

As it turned out, the reason she was upstairs to begin with was because she had been woken up by the smoke alarm in my bedroom going off and the room was full of smoke. She called my brother to come out and call the fire deportment. They ended up tearing a great big hole in the ceiling to find the hot spot and put it out.

The power was already out on the road due to the snowstorm, and Mamaw got an electrician to come out. It turned out that her breaker box and the cord leading into the house were messed up and needed replaced. I know Mamaw is terrified that the house would catch fire again. She had my mom unplug everything electric upstairs.

While all this was going on, I was at work. I got a phone call on Monday morning at 9:30 from my area supervisor, Dave. They wanted me to watch an AEP site in Huntington to prevent angry customers from following the trucks onto the lot. I was to work this site for a week from 10:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night. I would, once again be working on Christmas. If nothing else, it gave me plenty of time to finish my Christmas knitting. I finished Mommy's socks and Mamaw's mitts and cast on for a sweater.

I ended up missing the yearly Christmas Eve party at Mamaw's, but my parents, brother and sister-in-law and my nephew got up early on Christmas morning so I could open presents with them.

Things mostly went back to normal after that, except that Mamaw did not want me sleeping upstairs, so I have spent the last few weeks sleeping in her bed while she sleeps with my aunt Charlene. That was the status quo until yesterday, when it began to snow again. It is not a big snowstorm like before, it has just snowed pretty much steadily since yesterday morning and is supposed to continue until this weekend. So, I am back in a hotel until Thursday morning. Here's hoping nothing else happens while I am gone.

Troubles

I tried on my mom's socks and they did not fit. Her feet are about the same size as mine, so I can check, and I could not get them on. So, I went up a needle and a half, to a size US2.5 (I have no idea what the mm is) and now they should be fine. I just need to get them done by Christmas or she may be getting them on the needles. I have also purchased the pants for my dad.

I may have also started my sister-in-law knitting. I gave her a DVD, yarn and needles and invited her to SnB next week. So, she will also be getting a knitting kit for Christmas.

Christmas

is just around the corner and I need to get cracking on buying gifts. So, here is my planned list so far:

Mommy: Pretty Petals Socks and shirts
Daddy: pants
Bruce: pants
Kristen: shirts
Hunter: Thomas and puzzle-done
Kira: quilt (in progress)
Arianna: shirt and stuffed animal
Mama Mary: fingerless mitts
Char: ?
Uncle Jim: pajama bottoms
Mama and Papa Rose: gift certificate

So, here goes!