All Saints Episcopal Church

All Saints Episcopal Church: I Used To Drink Tea

By The Rev. Bonnie A. Perry
September 10, 2006"

If you have a few minutes, go and read it. The All Saints' website has actually, finally, been updated, and I'm cruising around. This is good stuff, and I wish that I had made it to church that Sunday to hear it. Instead, I was dealing with the death of a co-worker and heading to the south suburbs for a visitation. I should have made it to church, too. Oh well, at least I was able to read the sermon, which I didn't even know was an option.

This is about church

I'm not going to write about my whole history with The Church and church-going and stuff. That could be a book. A book at the bottom of the amazon.com sales list, a book that no one but my mother would read, but a book-length thing anyway. Maybe if I ever decide to do NaNoWriMo I could base it on that. But it would be boring to make fictional... so moving on.

I attend All Saints Episcopal Church in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood. It is a lovely church, with a wonderful old building and some nice stained glass and a very open and welcoming spirit backed up be incredibly inclusive service language for the Eucharist. The rector, Rev. Bonnie Perry, and the curate, Rev. Kevin Goodman, are both great speakers and the sermons and even the announcements are a joy to hear.

"Two weeks from today, Sunday, November 12, 2006, the Rt. Rev., soon to be Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Episcopal church's new Presiding Bishop (the most senior Episcopal bishop in the USA) will be preaching at All Saints at the 11:00am worship service. This will be her first parish visit after her elevation. Bishop Jefferts Schori is the first woman to head a province of the Anglican Communion. This is a historic event. Come early as we are likely to host an overflow crowd."

The previous paragraph is pretty much taken right out of the announcements of the service booklet from today's service. If anyone wishes to attend the service and needs more information or a ride or something, please let me know. I wouldn't want to tell you about it and then not be of help in getting you to see the newest Presiding Bishop. That would be mean.

P.S. My mom is jealous of this.

this started as Administrivia

I have rearranged the sidebar a bit, as I found a clever little sidebar thing (the Word Match) over at Purls and Tails when I was following a link from my SP9 Hostess' blog in the comments. It is available over at The Free Dictionary. I have no idea about their website, and I don't know if the words will change tomorrow, but mine are different from those over at Anne's blog. Give it a try. If it breaks the website when you view it, please let me know right away.

I also moved the archives down the sidebar a bit, as I have been writing over here for more than 2 years and that means that there are 25 archive links. Its a lot to keep up towards the top when there are other more fun things to put on a sidebar.

Does anyone know if Blogger Beta has a 3-bar option? I might switch if I could get the three columns going without ditching this blog entirely. Until then, I'm holding out. It worked well for me on Windows ME, I went straight from Windows 98 to XP and never felt like I was missing anything in between. I am definitely not an early-adopter when it comes to software.

My SP9 downstream pal has received her first gift, a purchased pattern that was emailed to her by Susan over at I'm Knitting As Fast As I Can. Susan was very helpful and invoiced me through PayPal and sent the pattern on to my pal so that everything stayed a secret and I didn't handle the copyrighted pattern in between, when I wasn't buying it for myself. If for some reason you want some knitting pattern copyright angst, go check out Annie Modesitt's post about it. I find that stuff interesting to read about, but I am a knitter and a dork. So take it with a grain of salt.

While exploring Annie's site I found that she has a Cafe Press shop with some good stuff. I want something from this collection, the Knit for Brains set of stuff. If you were actually shopping for me, I would like the long-sleeve tee, canvas tote bag, sweatshirt, or sticker (for my water bottle).

Keep Smiling! =)

Googlebomb attempt

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

The article about this campaign season's googlebombs in the NYTimes. If you want to login without all the hassle, go here to get a BugMeNot login.

An Early Package

An Early Package
Originally uploaded by tdgirl.

Look what I got! There isn't much more to say except that you should click through to flickr! to see what was in those lovely packages.

Thanks pal!

Statistical Anomaly

HowManyOfMe.com

There is: 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

This has been going around the blogosphere for a bit of time now (I followed the link from Beth's LJ), and there is something that I am wondering, now that I've done it myself. If it comes up with zero people having your name, does that mean that you don't have your name? Or is there yet another one of me out there? I also found that there was also 1 person for my full given name. Now, am I counted twice? Or is it all statistics? Does anyone know?

************************************
My SP9 pal sent me an early package for Halloween... I will post about it in full when the camera recovers its power

Recipe Help

I made this "Cheesy Chicken" Supper Bake tonight, in my two 8" round cake pans as I don't own such a large pan as a 9x13 baking dish. This baffled my mom when I called to ask what I should use instead. The fact that I didn't have even one. I'm sure that she has 3.

I split the contents of the box into two pans, followed the directions (with a fully preheated oven) and came up with some quite reasonable dinner. The problem is that it is very salty and tastes processed. So now I am looking for a way to make the sauce, seasoning and crumb topping parts (the other parts are butter, hot water, egg noodles and chicken breast) in a way that is low on the difficulty and salt scales while high on the yummy scale.

Please send me links or entire recipes or suggestions on how to make this dish, well, better. But remember, I don't even have a 9x13 baking dish. In general, I don't cook. But I'm pretty sure that I could do this better than Campbells.

Keep Smiling! =)

NaBloWriMo

So, SP9's rules say that I have to update regularly over here, and now, Badger
has signed on for National Blog Writing Month, for those of us who are not going to be writing novels, which are totally going to kill portions of the blogosphere for November. The deal is, you have to post something, anything, everyday in November. Even if its insipid. or pointless. Which this blog usually is, as I started this online writing thing for my own selfish reasons long ago on diaryland, and my habits have not really changed. But I'm going to do it. Soon, there will be a button on the sidebar. I might even try reading Fussy sometimes. But my blog-reading list is very long and takes up a lot of knitting time, so probably not. If only the computer could read my mind for the scrolling and clicking, keeping my hands free.

Who wants to do this along with me? Even if you've already announced it, tell me here too.

Best Finished Object

The Bag
Originally uploaded by tdgirl.

For SP9, my hostess, Lorinda is having a contest for us to show off our best finished objects and then she'll use an RNG to choose a winner.

This is my best finished object because, well, I actually finished it. I sent it off to my OSSP, Becky, in August. I knit it with less than one skein of Lorna's Laces Fisherman Wool in the color Irving Park, to give it a Chicago tie-in. There is short row shaping, fancy i-cord for the handles, decreasing I had to pay attention to and then I added some woven flowers, an inside pocket and a magnetic clasp.

So sorry

Back in early September, I was surfing the KnitPicks website, where I came upon what can only be described as an elbow warmer. There was no further description, at the time, of the purpose of this particular garment. I then went on to write a blog post about the ridiculousness of such an item, here.

In the most recent catalog, all is made clear. For my teasing, I apologize, as the people who need such elbow warmers should not be made fun of. You see, the "elbow warmer" is actually a sleeve to cover up a PICC line and make it less visible. While I'm not sure that the PICC sleeve actually keeps attention away from the medical situation, for those who want to wear them, we shouldn't make fun of elbow warmers.

Sorry.

SP9 Participants

I just went to check up on the Participants list for SP9, and I know that its in alphabetical order, but I am still very honored that The Heathen Housewife is right next to The Inconsistent Mixer. I am a dork and a blogstalker. I'm sorry Shelly.

SP9 questionnaire

I have signed up for SP9, my hostess with the mostess has sent the matches, I will be sending to Dana, and now this questionnaire must be filled out

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

I love knitting with soft, plied, wool and wool-blend yarns, fingering to heavy worsted weight. The best ones are yarns that knit up on US size 5-8 needles. I am a very loose knitter, even though I am improving in how I hold the yarn to tighten up my socks, but I like the way that I knit naturally better, without any finger looping. It may be loose, but its easy to pick up and put down.

I find much less pleasure in knitting with majority cotton or majority acrylic yarns. I don't have any interest in them, as I live in a cold place and sheep make wool without petrochemicals. Also, I find that cotton yarns seem to make my hands hurt over time.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

My Denise needles have a case (an original, red case, as I inherited an incomplete set from my paternal grandmother). The DPNs go in a Piddleloop pencil pouch (that Jennifer made just for me!). Straight needles are theoretically contained in my grandmother's ancient needle case (when I learned how to knit, my aunt gave me the knitting things from my maternal grandmother that had been in storage for more than 10 years), but they tend to just pop out of the woodwork, probably because I never use them and they seem to want attention. I have fabric for making needle cases, but I have yet to actually deal with the sewing machine to do it.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I learned to knit at a free Saturday morning class at Coldwater Collaborative in Excelsior, MN, December 2002 when I was home from school on Xmas vacation. My grandmother (paternal) tried to teach me when I was a child, but she got frustrated that I was messing up her knitting project, and I didn't want to learn that way. Or something. It didn't end well and there was a knitting truce.

I consider myself an intermediate knitter. I have yet to make a sweater, but there isn't anything that I've tried that has totally daunted me. The only thing that scares me about knitting projects is that I have the attention span of a fruit fly.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

I might, but its terribly out of date. If you really want me to put something together, I could.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)

I like mint and other "wake up" smells, but for the most part, candles and bath products are wasted on me. I use Dove bar soap. I have unscented antibacterial hand soap. Candles are just asking for me to start the 21st century Chicago Fire. Also, if I were to light candles, they would be unscented tapers on the dinner table, either white or color coordinated with the centerpiece/dishes/linens/room, in basic glass or heirloom silver candle holders. I do like chapstick though. =) That isn't very exciting.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

I have a serious sweet tooth. I like dark chocolate and milk chocolate. I think that Hershey's is too waxy. Dove Promises (those little foil wrapped ones) are a staple item in my coworker's desk (where I put them so that there is some shame if I eat 374329 of them in one day). I also love good gummies. Take 5 bars are really, strangely, good. If you are in Australia (or maybe Cost Plus World Market), they have Starburst Gummy Babies, TimTams and Picnic candy bars. All of which are really quite tasty.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I spin, mainly on my Lendrum wheel, and I teach a class in basic drop spindle technique at Arcadia Knitting. I like handspun yarn and I find it to be magical when wool turns into yarn.

I also dabble in embroidery on dish towels. This is mainly because my mother loves dishtowels and seems to be fairly ambivalent towards handknits. I aim to please and have my creations appreciated.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I like non-traditional, lyrics driven, upbeat, rock-and-roll bands and singer-songwriters, I think. Here are some artists that I like, maybe you know how they fit together: Down the Line, Barenaked Ladies, Indigo Girls, Cowboy Mouth. My computer can play MP3s

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

I love blue. Blue goes best with: red, purple, black, gray, green, cream, white

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I live with a non-knitting roommate. I have a mom, dad and a younger sister. They are super. Mom's a nurse, Dad's in sales and my sister is studying biology with a second major in globe trotting and a minor in chemistry. She is going to be a doctor, and then probably do relief work in an effort to see every corner of the globe. I love my sister and wish that I had been more adventurous and less focused in school. My parents have a golden retriever named Baxter, and my sister's cat named Magic lives there too. She tries to hiss at the dog and adores my mom, when my sister isn't home.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

I wear scarves and mittens. Someday I will make a hat that I like, but until then, I have some handy dandy ear warmers that do the job. Ponchos are difficult to wear and look ridiculous.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

I like to knit small things with forgiving relationships with gauge; baby booties, wrist warmers, scarves, hats for my sister (her head is so large, it is virtually impossible to be too big), pot holders, bags, mittens (but only after the matching hat/gauge swatch has been made)

13. What are you knitting right now?

Right now, I am typing. Currently in the queue and on the needles are a mitered square blankie, a mitered square pillow for the knitting guild brown bag exchange, the Brioche Bodice from IK Summer 2006, a gauge disaster Baby Surprise Sweater, some small-child socks, a shawl from Helen's Lace... there is probably more if I dug in the tower-of-yarn.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Yes.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

I like bamboo and plastic, dpns and circulars.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

I've got both, thanks.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

Going off of that list above, from the summer. I started a baby/cat blanket in January 2005 out of LB Homespun. It is more than half-way done and it is very likely that it will never be completed. I might call it done, bind off, and give it to the cat though.

18. What is your favorite holiday?

When I was in school, it was Casimir Pulaski day. Now, it is the Thanksgiving to New Year's season that I love, with Christmas as the high point.

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Besides yarn and wool? I collect state quarters, pressed pennies, Christmas ornaments and embroidered patches from places I visit

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I foresee some experimental entrelac in my future. I have bought the patterns for Lanai and the Fiber Fish Mittens. They both have good entrelac instructions in them. I consistently buy Interweave Knits at the store, because they always get mangled in my mailbox. My old roommate gives me Vogue Knitting sometimes, but I wouldn't purchase that one.

I covet those neat metal tubes that you can slide your in-progress sock knitting into. Most of my dpns are in the 7" range.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

I'd like to find some more in-depth mitered knitting information, mostly for the purposes of the blanket and pillow projects.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I have tried to knit socks. I buy sock yarn. I would not call myself a sock knitter. My foot measurements are: 9" around the ball of my foot, 9" around my ankle, 9.5" toe to heel.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)

April 4

So there it is, just in the nick of time to meet the deadline.

Beta Version

no, I'm not switching to Blogger Beta... but I have uploaded all 312 pictures that I took in Australia to my York Photo account, for my mother to get prints. I intend to get them up on Flickr! this weekend, and then write up the narratives on the blog next week. If you want to see the beta version of the photos, then leave a comment or send me an email. I will need your email address to invite you to see the album.

And be warned, I take a lot of pictures of random things "so that I can tell the story later" and also that I am known for not taking great photographs. Decent snapshots, but I don't have much in the way of technical photography skillz, especially on the unculled photos. So the beta version is really, well, whatever comes before Beta. At least the filenames tell where I was (Sydney, Zoo, Brisbane, Noosa, Coast Drive).

I'll stop rambling now and go get some sleep.

Keep Smiling! =)

Thanks Melinda!

My secret pal from the Spinning Roving Swap is great! She sent my package to my house and its lovely.
Here is a picture:
Over at Flickr! There are two other pictures with notes over there. Inside the package is:

• A nice card made by my pal
• Merino-Silk roving in a very nice multi-blended colorway (4 oz.)
• sock shaped point protectors (a set of red and a set of green)
• the Susan Bates sock needle set (yay!)
• a pattern for ruffled leg warmers (with options to make it not-ruffley) made with hand-painted yarn. Handpainted yarn patterns are good for handspun yarn, so this is a good choice.
• ETA: A printout of the Dragon Scale Gauntlet Pattern from Chartreuse Knits by Annemarie Pearson. This pattern was in such a neat stack (stapled separately) that I didn't notice it until I was cleaning up for my roommate's family to come over this morning. (10-15). However, I think that I might knit it up in yellow Cascade 220 for Kathryn, who I am being a One Skein Secret Pal Angel for, and I still haven't done the FO part of the swap for her.
  
• And the whole thing was covered in small squares of Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate, made in my pal's town.

Thanks Mel! I really enjoyed receiving this package and participating in this quick little swap.

***edited to add:
Woohoo! I got sock needles! I am still excited by this to the extent that I am still awake and typing it at midnight.

Geez, I'm a dork.

end edit***

Back in North America

I'm back home in Chicago, and this week I will be posting about my trip. I intended to blog as I went, but, well, that didn't happen.

14 hours isn't so long

Qantas flight 12 wasn't so bad at all. I thought that 14 hours would be torture, but on the overnight it wasn't bad. And even though there was no knitting, there was in-flight entertainment on the little video screen on the back of the seat in front of me, and it included video games, so I was set. I even got some decent sleep. We crossed both the international date line and the equator, arriving in Sydney at about 6am Monday morning.

On the Way Down Under

Note: These Australia posts will improve when I get the pictures into the laptop and the laptop onto an internet connection. For now, its a quick text-only from the internet cafe.

Saturday:

In Andersonville:

Finish laundry, finish packing, go to the bank, pick up prescriptions, eat lunch, go to the airport.

At ORD:

almost miss the turn to Terminal 3 drop-off, wait in a very, very long line at American Airlines for International Check-in, make line-friends (like school-friends) with a FermiLab scientist going to India (which he does often). He had an accent that made me think he was German, but I didn't ask. Behind me was a couple from Huntsville, Alabama who were also on their way to India. He is retired Navy and worked on nuclear-powered submarines. Very Cool. They have been all over the world, including to Australia. Good tips from them.

There was no knitting allowed on the flight from LAX to Sydney, and the bag gets checked all the way through, so there was no knitting from ORD to LAX. I downloaded knitting podcasts in the hope that would make it better. I was wrong. These podcasts are meant to be listened to while you are knitting. But Cast On is quite good.

Thing I discovered on Saturday: It is a really, really long plane ride to LA. 4 hours 15 minutes long. I had no idea. Its approx. 3 hours to San Fran (if I remember correctly from my childhood) and just a couple of hours to NYC/Boston. But Los Angeles? Really really far. Also, all the buildings are very short. There was also a big, dark area next to the expressway as the plane made its approach. I would think it was a river, but I don't know if they have a river in LA. Anyone know? And you would be correct, I've never been to LA. Well, I have, but only as a small child, about 20 years ago.

Sunday will get is own post.

Visitors!

I am backdating this post to keep the "send me your address if you want a postcard" announcement up top.

Thanks to Shelly and her awesome knitalong (KAL), I have actually had new visitors. And thanks to Ms. Blackbird I now have a sitemeter. So not only are people (should I really presume that plurality?) coming to visit, but soon I will know where the heck they came from.

I am totally behind the times with the technology of blog administration. But I'm excited. Expect posts from OZ as I can.

Who wants mail?

I will be leaving for the land Down Under tomorrow, on a very long plane flight upon which no knitting, crochet or needlework of any sort are allowed. This is going to be a problem, I suspect. But the knitting can go in my checked luggage. I will try not to cry.

If anyone would like a postcard, please leave a comment with your address or mosey on over to my profile, find the email link and send it to me. I will do my best to follow through on this offer.

Keep Smiling! =)

These little things are addicting

I have been following The Heathen Housewife's mitered square blanket project for awhile now. She started it, and then asked The Yarn Harlot to ask the knitblogosphere to send her more sock yarn scraps. I sent her some scraps of Regia self-striping, and eventually got the idea to use my Koigu and CTH yarns for a blanket. Well, last night, I started my first block. I am now on my third. I've started to get the hang of the cast-on, using my cotton rug warp weaving yarn aka blue string aka leader yarn, for the provisional cast-on over a size 5 needle.

So far I've figured out that I want my blanket to be the same size as my khaki and red plaid couch blanket, so I need 15 blocks with a 31 stitch cast-on as the base line. There will need to be 20 rows of blocks. I am planning to use fingering weight, handpaint, merino wool yarns, preferably 2-ply. I'm not sure how many squares I will get out of the almost-50 grams I have of each of the two Koigus, but if it is one row, then I will get 2 rows of my Koigu (one of each color) and 4 rows of CTH (100 gram balls = twice as many rows). 6 rows does not equal 20 rows. I also have 100 gram sets of striping Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock from the studio sale to the WCKG in the spring. There are 3 colors there (red-orange, green-blue and charcoal-purple), so that would give me 6 more rows of colors so I'd be up to 12. I would also need to work out the textural difference between the 3-ply, wool-nylon LLSS and the 2-ply, 100% superwash merino, CTH and Koigu.

All of this knit-rambling makes me think that I should knit my first ball of yarn up into as many squares as I can to see how far it goes. If I get 20 squares, then I'll knit the blanket that way, if I don't even get to 15 squares, then I'll refigure the numbers. If I get to 20 squares, then I'll only need 150 more grams of yarn to make a whole blanket. I'm guessing that I will find some yarn on sale or hiding in a stash by then that fits the situation.

Here is an idea for a stripe sequence:
Koigu 1
LL 1
CTH 1
LL 2
CTH 2
LL 3
LL3
CTH 2
LL 2
CTH 1
LL 1
Koigu 2

I think that this will accent the textural differences in the two yarns in an interesting way. Or maybe I should just use this as an excuse to buy lots of single skeins of hand dyed koigu-esque sock yarn. Well, I've got at least 90 squares before I have to get more koigu-esque if I decide to nix the Lorna's.

I'm going to stop rambling now, so that I can have some sleep in me before work tomorrow. This week is going to be the end of me, I think.