Local Government Gone Awry

Yesterday was a wonderful spring day, so I spent about an hour and half in the afternoon raking up leaves in the play yard. (Note that I didn't mention getting ALL the leaves raked, as the central feature of our play yard is a very large oak tree with a propensity for holding onto last year's leaves as long as possible in the most miserly way; consequently I'll be raking up newly dropped old leaves at least until mid-June.) At the end of that time I had a pile of loosely stacked dry leaves roughly the size of a small car. Ideally I could have tossed a match on the pile, watched them burn quickly, and been done with the whole lot in about twenty minutes or less.

Unfortunately our local city council in all their infinite wisdom (insert heavy sarcasm here) has decreed that today was not a good leaf-burning day. In fact the only acceptable days to burn leaves, according to the council, are the first seven calendar days of any given month. Never mind that the first seven days of March were cold, rainy, and extremely windy and therefore totally not conducive to leaf burning in any form. Supposedly the rationale for limiting burning had to do with a small handful of vocal residents who claimed that leaf smoke aggravated their respiratory conditions and that burning should be banned entirely. Since that is totally impractical for most of the population, they opted to limit burning to a specific calendar time frame.

The only problem is that their plan doesn't work. Had I been able to burn my leaves today they would have been gone and forgotten about. But legally they have to sit and wait for another two weeks before being burned. Of course it started raining about 4:30, so they are no longer dry and loosely packed. In the two weeks before April 1, they will continue to compact and be rained on, and develop huge quantities of various molds. When I am finally able to burn these leaves, the resulting fire will be dark, smoky, and full of mold spores; consequently creating much more respiratory inflammation than the same leaves burned dry would have done. Multiply that by 800 or so local households all burning on the same few days instead of spread out throughout the month, and the result is indeed irritating - even to those of us with healthy respiratory systems.

Some people have suggested that other methods of disposing of leaves should be employed and leaves should not be burned at all. It's a concept that's great theoretically but not so great in practice. Composting the leaves might be an option, except that our trees produce such a prodigious quantity that we would quickly find ourselves knee-deep in composting leaves throughout the entire yard (oak leaves don't break down readily - they easily take two to three times as long as some other leaves to decompose). Bagging the leaves and hauling them off is time-consuming as well as expensive since someone has to purchase the bags as well as the gasoline for the hauling vehicle. And so it is that I am left with a huge pile of wet molding leaves that I'm hoping to burn in April, as they will be much worse if I have to leave them until May.

Wouldn't it be nice if the city council would just admit that they made a mistake and repeal the burning ordinance?

New Blog Feature

I had a little bit of extra time this morning to tinker around with the blog, and I finally figured out how to add something - a miniature representation of my Etsy store items. This block shows a randomly selected group of my Etsy listings with a link to take you directly to my Etsy store. I haven't yet figured out exactly how it determines which items to show, so if you click back later you may find different items pictured.

Anyway I hope you'll take a look. You never know when you might find something that you just can't get by without!

The Blanket is Finished

So the yarn that I bought by remote control (see this post) worked up into a beautiful lacy baby blanket.

I finished the blanket on Friday night and shipped it on Monday afternoon. On Wednesday I was very pleasantly surprised to receive this email from the purchaser:

"Hello there, I just wanted to let you know, I received my blanket today. I left feedback for you, but I wanted to make sure you knew personally that I love it so much. It matches a baby gown I have for my new baby boy on the way, I can't wait to use it. Thank you for your talents and time. Very excellent service and so fast.

Thanks again, Rebekah."

I'm so delighted to hear that she loved the blanket. It's very rare to receive actual feedback from purchasers and it is such a good feeling.

Now I'm off and knitting on the next project - a pair of socks for one of my special friends.









I can't wait to get them done and see how she likes them!

P.S. Unfortunately the chocolate is all gone now!

The (Dark) Dawn of DST

So once again we lose an hour of sleep in order to make the politicians happy. Unfortunately by the time we get it back in the fall my sleep deficit has multiplied to the point where I really need that hour returned with interest. I'm not as young as I used to be, and I really don't need to have my body clock biannually readjusted (or maladjusted!). Studies have shown that the incidence of heart attacks, work accidents, and other unfortunate occurrences are increased by as much as 5% in the days immediately following the spring time change. And to what purpose, really?? Daylight Savings Time makes about as much sense to me as cutting ten inches off the bottom of your blanket and sewing it onto the top because your blanket is too short. In the end, we all only have 24 hours in a day no matter how it's configured, and that's never really enough time. Bottom line, I don't really care whether we stay on Daylight time or go back to Standard time, but let's please just pick one and stick with it! Enough already!

Yarn Shopping by Remote Control

And so a new month has arrived, bringing with it yet another new and interesting knitting challenge. I've been conversing on Etsy for a couple of days with a potential customer who was interested in a blanket I already had listed for sale, only she wanted it in a different color. When she confirmed this afternoon that she did indeed want me to make the blanket, I was here at home with my peacefully sleeping grandson and a seven-day deadline to finish the blanket (which of course I hadn't started yet, not having known about the order ahead of time). Naturally I didn't have any appropriate white yarn available here at home (so much for my resolution to diminish my stash as much as possible), and there is no longer anywhere local to purchase yarn. However, Mike and Jeremy were in Litchfield doing some sort of ham radio project, so I called Jeremy's cell phone and asked if they would be willing to stop by the-store-which-shall-not-be-named on the way home to pick up some yarn. When they arrived in the yarn department they called me, and I was able to explain exactly what kind of yarn I wanted, and naturally the yarn I needed wasn't there (that's the ***-**** way!) although there was an empty bin with the appropriate label attached. I was then able to talk them through finding an alternative and eventually they came up with something that I could use in place of the yarn I had originally wanted. Then they hung up and headed off to check out.

Some time later, they arrived home and handed me my bag of yarn and a bonus!

Yes, my son totally understands my chocolate addiction.

Needless to say, I got busy working on both items. So far I've knitted about three inches of the baby blanket and it's gone rather quickly. And yes, there still are some peanut butter cups left in the bag. I figured I'd need at least a few to get through yet another Monday.

"I Pledge Allegiance....."

So today the Little Guy and his mommy came over for a visit. Naturally he was excited to demonstrate the newest thing he has learned - the Pledge of Allegiance! (or Pwedze of Awwediance) He can recite it right through from beginning to end without missing a single word. Of course his articulation is not perfect, but I had no trouble understanding what he was saying, and at the very end he added his own special touch, saying "...wif wibbety and dustis fo' aww - OH YEAH!!"

Some Random Knitterly Thoughts

It's been a busy knitting month around here. I've completed (and listed on Etsy) three winky-wonky scarves:


I've also done a few dishcloths. One of my friends attended a weekend women's retreat, and received a goodie bag which contained, among other things, a ball of yarn and a pair of knitting needles.

She decided that she wasn't really that interested in learning to knit, so she gave me the yarn and needles. I made a basic diagonal dishcloth

and had some yarn left over, but not enough to make a second dishcloth. So I combined the leftover yarn with some solid color yarn I had on hand, and made a two-toned round dishcloth. Both of these went back to the friend who gave me the yarn.

I also knitted three pairs of slippers as a special request for another friend (who is also our church organist)

and a special baby hat for yet another church friend.

This pattern is very special because it's the one her mother-in-law used to make to give as baby gifts for all of the new babies in the family. Since she is no longer with us, I was asked if I could duplicate the hat pattern and now I'm the official supplier of Joie baby hats for the family.

Of course the month is far from over. I still have to make two pairs of socks for two of my yoga sisters (one pair is started, still looking for the right yarn to do the other), and several other projects that have been on the back burner for a while.

Party Animal!

I celebrated my birthday last Saturday (and THIS year I got to really celebrate, unlike last year). Of course I'm turning into a real party animal now -- I partied four days in a row! On Friday night Mike took me to Knit Wits in Springfield, where he purchased a pair of sock blockers for me as my birthday gift. After a couple other stops we drove further north to Sherman and had dinner at Cancun. A wonderful evening was enjoyed by both of us, and we even made it home at a (semi) reasonable hour.

On Saturday (my actual birthday) I was delighted to attend "Love and Chocolate" held in Blackburn's Bothwell Auditorium. The show was a delightful mix of love songs from different eras and genres, and the fact that I knew several of the performers only enhanced the enjoyment. The tickets to this show were a birthday gift from two of my dear neighbors.

On Sunday afternoon, three of my four kids, my parents, son-in-law, grandson, and his mommy all gathered here for dinner and to celebrate my birthday and Jeremy's. Mike made Italian beef in the crcokpot, Sara made pasta salad, and bought the rest of the groceries. She also baked the cake AND put trick candles on it! We had a marvelous time celebrating family and togetherness.

On Monday morning my friend Sue hosted the "yoga sisters" at her house to celebrate my birthday. She baked a luscious carrot cake and spoiled us with a choice of a warm cider drink and various teas. I received an assortment of lovely gifts from my very special yoga sisters.

I think I'm about partied out though. I can't remember any other time in my life when I've had four days of partying in a row. Maybe things will be peaceful and quiet for a few days (and maybe I can remember how to act when that happens).

Field trip!

Today was the long-awaited fabulous knitting class field trip. Two of my knitting students, one of their friends, and I set off this morning to head to Decatur. Our driver is a Decatur native, so in addition to our yarn store destination we got the grand tour of the town; where she grew up, where her husband grew up, where they went to school, etc. Then we drove downtown and entered Enticements, a wonderful yarn shop in downtown Decatur. Two hours later, the four of us emerged with filled shop bags and lighter wallets. After a quick stop at Del's Popcorn Shop, where chocolate and other goodies were procured, we headed off to Monical's Pizza for a fabulous buffet lunch. After we had filled our plates and our stomachs it was decided that we needed to walk off some of the calories we had consumed, so off we headed to Hobby Lobby to buy still more yarn! After a stop at Sam's Club for some essential groceries and a quick trip through the Culver's drive-through for ice cream, we headed for home. At the end of the trip we all agreed that it had been a fabulous day, and we can't wait to do it again (once our wallets have recovered, of course!).

The Winky-Wonky Scarf is finished

I finished up the Winky-Wonky scarf and was pleased with how it turned out. The photos don't really do it justice because I was working under less than optimal lighting conditions. Even my mom liked it. It came out a bit narrower than I would have liked, but I'm planning to do another one using needle one size larger and I think it will be simply awesome.

Here's a close-up to show the stitch detail:
Now I need to get my pattern proofed and posted for sale on the Etsy site. One awesome thing about selling original patterns is that I have no shipping cost to email the pdf file. Next I need to get the snowball hat pattern transcribed. I'm also planning a couple of felted bags, but I need to hunt up a graph that I used several years ago to make a double-knitted blanket as I want to put that design on one of the bags.