Overheard in the Fitting Rooms

There were some great sales today and since I had a store credit to use before it expires, I thought I'd swing over to do a little shopping.  I didn't take any pictures but I just had to share some things I overheard in the fitting room today.  Oh my, if only people realized that just because their fitting room door is closed, other folks can still hear them.

The first merry group I heard were a grown mother and daughter.  From the sound of their voices, I'd say the daughter was middle-aged and the mother was elderly.  The daughter was going on and on about whether or not certain tops were letting her n_____ of her chest show.  I felt like sticking my head out of my room and saying, "For Pete's sake, if you're worried about it, put a bandaid over them or wear a bra!"  But I restrained myself.  Then she started in on that age-old question....."Ma, do you think this makes my a__ look big?  Apparently, her mother was either hard-of-hearing or had bad eyesight, because the daughter kept on asking and not getting an answer.  Once again, I was tempted to put in my two-cents and say, "Look, if you want an honest opinion, just step out in the hallway and I'll tell you."  Again, I restrained myself.

At the next store, I walked into the fitting room after squeezing past a portly young man who was standing right in the entrance talking to his wife, who was standing in front of the mirror as you entered the fitting area.  I got a glimpse of a large lady wearing fishnets and a mini-skirt but I was moving fast.  Frankly, I was worried about getting high because the scent of marijuana was fairly dripping off the two of them.  They were carrying on the following conversation:

She:  "So, what do you think of this outfit?"
He:  "It's ok."
She:  "Well, you don't seem very enthusiastic."
He:  "You know I don't get excited about this stuff.  It's ok."
She"  "I'm going to need more positive reinforcement to wear something like this out in public."

I REALLY wanted to yell out, "DON'T!  Find something with more fabric."  I controlled myself.
As I was trying my own haul on, I could hear her back in her fitting room.  She was breathing like she had just run a marathon.  I thought, "What in the world?"

Then she started with the pep talk....."OK," she said to herself, "I got one arm in."  And so it went.  I kind of think a larger size might have been the solution but what do I know?   Bet you didn't know that women's dressing rooms could be such interesting places, did you?

The Queen of Gadgets

I LOVE gadgets.  Can't get enough of them, in fact.  So when I find gadgets that are really handy and useful, besides being all cute and clever, that makes it a win-win situation.  Let me tell you about two of my favorite sewing gadgets.

This morning I sat down to sew up the hem of a knit jacket I own.  Is it just me, or are you also finding that many garments these days have hems that seem to come loose after just a few wearings and/or washings?  That's just an aside, but it's twice in a week now that I've discovered a drooping hem on a fairly new outfit.  Anyway, back to my gadgets.....

Clover makes a little needle threader that is just the neatest little thing.  It's the brown gizmo on the left.  I've included a link as this is still available.  On the right is a holder for two spools of thread that is made by June Tailor.
  

It has a little dowel on top of one end for a thimble, a slot on the other end to put a seam ripper, a magnet attached to the other end for needles, and then two dowels that can hold spools of your most frequently used thread.  I always keep a black and a white spool on there for quick mending jobs.  I picked up both of these items at a local sewing shop several years ago.  I'm not sure if the mini-spool holder is still available anywhere but if you happen across one, I'd highly recommend it.

The needle threader has a slot where you put your needle in (eye first).  Then you lay your thread across a little groove area to the left of the needle slot.  Once you've put the thread into this groove, you press down on a little lever.

It never fails to amaze me how easily the needle is threaded when you do this.  The gadget doesn't exactly thread the needle completely at this point, however. 

It pops part of the thread through the eye of the needle....just enough for you to grab and pull the thread through.  Then, once you have enough thread on your needle, you just put the thread through the cutter groove on the threader and give it a little tug and the thread is cut.  You don't even need scissors.  How handy is that?



Keep your eyes open for one of these threaders, if you are like me and hate struggling with threading needles, especially as our eyes get older more demanding.  Happy sewing/mending!

The Faves Keep on Coming

It's been awhile since I last posted a Friday's Fave Five list.  It's been a little hectic here and I've not been carving out time to do this but I have missed my Friday time looking back over the week.  So let's get on to my list for this week, shall we?

1.  Spending Valentine's Day with my hubby. OK, technically I only got to spend the evening with the Commander but for awhile, it looked like I wasn't even going to be able to do that.  I was SUPPOSED to be going to a diet group meeting.  At the last minute my two other friends bailed on me to stay home and I decided to surprise the Commander and have a lovely meal cooked and waiting for him when he got home.  I also FINALLY got this framed for him....pictures of his "three Lauras."  That would be his daughter-in-law on the left, his mother in the middle, and his daughter on the right.

2.  Not having to fight weather like THIS this week.  This has been a great week weather-wise.  Yesterday, the temps got up to the mid-60's.  Today it is supposed to get up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  I can't wait.    I always feel so free when the weather warms and I no longer have to be burdened down with goosebumps and layers of clothing.  I actually went outside and trimmed the butterfly bushes, too, yesterday.  Nothing like warmth and sun to give a girl energy.

3.  More spinning time this week.  Today is our monthly spinning guild meeting and I'm about ready to head out to join the ladies.  Since the weather is supposed to be lovely, I'm thinking that I'll probably find them all sitting on the porch with their wheels.  It's a beautiful drive through the Pennsylvania countryside to get out to Mannings and I can't wait to be out on those country roads.  The fact that I can kibbitz with friends for several hours, spin, and then browse the yarn and patterns at Mannings after spinning is an extra bonus.

4.  I'm making more progress on my Great American Aran Afghan.  I finished this square this week.  Isn't that something?  I thought it looked really complicated in the book but my local yarn shop owner and the afghan class instructor told me that it really was pretty simple to knit up.  That was good because this was the square that the class worked on while I was in Indonesia so it meant that I had to do it completely by myself.  It DID turn out to be easy.  Yay!  And while I'm talking about the afghan class, a big "blessings" on Kathy, our instructor, who took the time to call me this week to remind me that our class was meeting and that they missed me.  I had forgotten to put it on the calendar and was sitting at home knitting.  I hightailed it over to the shop and got a good hour of knitting in with the group.  I thought that was so nice of her to give me a call.

5.  Last, but not least, we found out the sex of Mika's sibling-to-be.  In case you didn't know, Jason and Laura are expecting their second child in late July.  They just found out that the baby is going to be a boy.  Laura's side of the family has had an unbroken string of 13 girls with no boys until now.  However, our side of the family has a long tradition of second children being boys.  We're thrilled either way and especially that the baby is developing normally and doing well.  In fact, at Laura's last exam, they were able to observe the little guy sucking away on his thumb in utero. 

What are your fave fives this week?  To participate in this weekly posting exercise, join us at Living to Tell the Story where you can read how to link your own Fave Five posts.

Happy Valentine's Day

It didn't start out as a very promising Valentine's Day.  I was supposed to go to my diet group tonight and the Commander was disappointed that I wasn't going to be home to celebrate with him.  I was disappointed, too but figured I probably shouldn't NOT go, since I just had started back up with the group last week.

Then my one dieting buddy called to say that she wasn't going and she passed on the info that our other diet buddy was also staying home to be with her husband.  Well, that was enough for me.  With none of my friends going, why go by myself, leaving the Commander by his lonesome?

Yes, things started looking up for the evening right away.  I jumped in the car and headed off to the grocery story to pick up some ingredients for supper.  The Commander was going to just have leftovers tonight but now I'd fix him a nice meal.

I set the table with flowers, cloth napkins (pretty high-class, eh?), and a little candle for some candlelight.

The menu was Almondine Flounder, Parmesan Smashed Potatoes, Rolls, and there were supposed to be some veggies but I forgot to make the veggies.  It was probably a sub-conscious decision to forget those.  What can I say?

He was surprised to see me when he got home from work.  I was beginning to get a little worried that he might have stopped off somewhere for a bite to eat when it was almost 6 and he wasn't home but he had just worked late, thinking that I was on my way to the meeting.  Luckily, he came home hungry.

I wasn't so much hungry as I was eager to have him open his Valentine's Day present.  It's only something that he has been wanting for a long time.

I finally found just the right frame so that I could frame his "three Laura's" - his mother, our daughter, and our daughter-in-law.  He promised me that it is going to go in a special spot.

All that's left to do now is snuggle down in the recliners and enjoy the rest of the evening.  And how was your Valentine's Day?

All Steamed Up

One of my favorite ways to block a finished knitted item is to steam-block it.  Of course, this only works for smaller things, like afghan squares, baby clothes, hats, and individual parts of sweaters.  For things like shawls, I usually either block them on a blocking board on the floor or set out towels on the carpeted floor and then stretch the wet shawl out to the proportions I want using blocking wires and pin it out and let it dry.

Steam blocking is such an easy way to block, though.  Would you believe that as long as I've knitted (over 50 years), I actually hadn't steam blocked until just a few years ago?  I always soaked my finished item in a sink and then pinned it out.  Tedious and for things like sweaters, I often ended up with little "peaks" where the pins had been.  Ugh!  Even more incredible, I struggled to seam up side seams and set-in sleeves of knitted garments without blocking them first.  The day that someone told me that they always block their individual pieces BEFORE they seam them, the light bulb came on and it's been so much easier since then.

If you have an ironing board cover that has lines like this (or if you have a quilter's padded board or small padded blocking board), you can take your item and pin it out to the proportions you would like.

Then I set my iron to wool and the highest steam setting.  Don't forget this next step - You need to use a pressing cloth.  I use a big square of muslin. One of my readers, Laura, suggested using a thick cotton towel.  The advantage of using a thick towel would be that it would give added protection from having the iron flatten your knitting.   Lay it over your knitted item and then hold the iron over the covered area so the steam is steaming that area.  You don't want to press down on your knitting as though you were ironing a shirt.  I first steam an area without touching it at all.  Then I check it.  If it looks like it needs more vigorous blocking to behave, I VERY LIGHTLY make a quick pass with the iron on top of the pressing cloth, actually running the iron on top of the cloth instead of just holding it over the cloth.  The trick is to do it very lightly and quickly.  If you go slower and heavier, your garment will lose its stitch definition and look flat and unappealing.

The final result will still have its stitch definition but you'll notice that the stitches have evened out and things just look better.  For squares, if you desire, you can leave the square pinned to your ironing board overnight to let the square dry thoroughly from the steaming before unpinning it.

One note of caution:  Do NOT steam block acrylic yarn.  It will melt the yarn and your knitting will become a mess.  Only steam block wool.

She Said What?

When I was growing up, my grandmother (and my mother) had quite a few sayings that they'd use on my brother and I.  We heard them so often that they just became part of the fabric of our lives and thus we ended up weaving them into the lives of our own families.

Yesterday, for some reason, one such expression popped into my mind and I decided that I'd double-check the meaning, since one of the words was in German.  I typed the word into Google Translate and the words that came up weren't even close to what I "thought" it meant.  I tried some other variations in English but no luck.  Nothing was remotely like the word Grandma used.  I even tried the same choices in Dutch but still no luck.  Then I had a brainstorm.  "I'll ask my friends up on Facebook," I thought.

Surely among all my friends and acquaintances, someone might be familiar with the phrase and could confirm my translation of this phrase, which we always thought translated to  "If you don't stop misbehaving, I'm going to grab you by the pants."  So I typed in my query and logged out of Facebook.  Then, on a whim, I went to my favorite search engine and just typed in the query "Meaning of the word xxxxxxx."

Angelic?  No! We were full of mischief.

By golly, I got a page of hits BUT was I ever surprised.  Seems that German word doesn't mean "pants."  Oh, my!  Back I went into Facebook and quickly typed "Never mind.  Don't translate this.  I know what it means now.  You don't want to translate this.  I can't believe Grandma knew that word.  Grandma, I'm blushing!" (And thank goodness that I'd misspelled the darn word in my original question.)

Last evening over dinner, I said to the Commander, "Did you happen to go up on Facebook today?"

"Yes," he replied, "And I can't believe you asked that.  What did you THINK it meant?"

"Pants,.....maybe suspenders," I answered.

Then my eyes narrowed as I looked at him over my BBQ chicken sandwich.

"Hey, how do YOU know what that word meant," I said.

"I had a German mother, too, you know," was his answer.

He smiled and I started to laugh, almost snorting Diet Pepsi up my nose.

This morning I went to visit my mother in the nursing home.  She always asks me if I have any news to share.  Well.......

"Mom, remember that thing that Grandma used to say all the time when she'd catch us misbehaving?" I asked.  "What do you think "xxxxx" meant"

"Pants," she promptly replied.

"Um, not quite," I told her whereupon I told her the actual meaning.

"What did you say," she asked.

I leaned over and whispered it in her ear.  Believe me, this is not the type of word you want to say LOUDLY in public, especially in a nursing home.  Or at least have some oxygen standing by.

Mom started to laugh.

"But Mom, what's worse is that I've been saying that exact thing to MY kids since they were little," I wailed.  "Who knows if they've said it themselves."

Mom was laughing even harder now.  Hmph!  And all this time I thought Grandma was this sweet, proper, old lady.  What was I thinking?  Makes me wonder about all those other German and Dutch sayings I grew up hearing.  Oy!

It's All About the Commercials

Despite the best efforts of my man, Troy, the Steelers lost the Super Bowl.  I saw that it was going badly early in the first half so I brought the netbook downstairs so that I could do a little blogging while I watched.  Some of my musings follow:

Since my Steelers are screwing up in the Super Bowl, I figure I might as well take a break from cheering them on  to do a little commercial critiquing. I think my favorite commercial so far has been the Passat commercial with the little Darth Vader.  What a cute commercial. What a great dad to play along with the fantasy.  Reminds me of my dad taking time during his lunch breaks at the factory to write notes to me from "Peter Pan" back when I was a kid.

The Budweiser commercial in the Old West bar was lame.  Come on, breaking into a song after getting a Bud?  If you're going to write something that is unbelievable, at least make it funny.

(Whoops, had to take a break for a moment to cheer the Steelers' touchdown just now right before the half.  Yay, Hines Ward.)

The commercial for Coke with the castle storming and dragon was also not very impressive.  I thought that the graphics were impressive but didn't find the "hook" very memorable.  It wasn't endearing, not funny, meh!

The commercial for the job site with the fellow trying to park and the monkeys parking him in on both sides?  Lame, again.  I didn't find it funny.  Certainly nothing to talk about with coworkers in the break-room.

Frankly, so far, the most excited I got about a commercial was the commercial for the upcoming episode this week of "Bones" where Booth is buying an engagement ring.  Now THAT is going to generate some discussion.  Man, I hope he doesn't propose to Hannah.

I'm not sure what "chatter.com" is but the commercial looks pretty awesome on our new HD plasma TV.    Ditto on "The Daily" interactive newspaper for your digital tablet.  Loved the graphics effects. The same goes for the NFL commercial touting their apps for tablets, smartphones, laptops, etc.  Cool graphics effects. 

I've always loved the talking baby commercials although the one with his tailor isn't one of the best or funniest.  It really doesn't do much to sell me on e-trading.  The Best Buy commercial with Ozzy and Justin Bieber was dumb.   The Coca Cola commercial featuring the two border guards was delightful.  The two actors were physically  just right for the parts and I loved the story without words.  I'll remember the product, too.

Speaking of remembering a product, what was with the Stella Artois beer commercial?  I liked the jazz and Adrian Brody was a nice choice for a smoky-voiced, smooth singer but I failed to see what was bringing the women to tears.  (Yay, my Steelers are now only down by 3 points.)

Another fumble?  Another Green Bay touchdown?  This is pathetic!  Well, I missed a bunch of commercials, too because Jason and Laura called and we Skyped.  However, our big Skype surprise (which I can't blog about yet until we actually surprise them with it) failed to work so we could only talk to them and not actually see them.

Well, had to pause for awhile to finish watching my Steelers lose the Super Bowl.  Phooey!  But the Green Bay Packers played a better game.  Back to the commercials.....

The car that brakes for the beaver by the side of the road...now that was cute when the beaver returned the favor by crashing a tree across the road to save the driver later from the washed-out bridge.  Of course, from an ad viewpoint, I guess it was a failure because I don't know what it was advertising.  Tires, maybe?

I liked the beetle with the racing stripes on its back that was whizzing through the landscape.  Turns out it was a commercial for the new revamped Beetle car.  Now I'm curious to see what the latest model is going to look like.

I liked the Mercedes Benz commercial with all the different model Mercedes cars heading to the showroom to be there for the unveiling of the newest line.  P. Diddy actually did some decent acting in this commercial.  Cute!

I'd say my other favorite commercial of the bunch was the one for the Chevy Camaro where the two fellows are writing a commercial in their heads as it plays out on the screen for the viewer.  Having the driver come soaring over the edge of a building and into the school parking lot, now that was a cute touch.  I'll remember that commercial and the product.

I missed some commercials because of Skyping and running upstairs for breaks and food but hey, such is life.  All in all, I have to say that there were no commercials that just made me roar with laughter OR made my jaw drop.  It was a rather disappointing crop of ads AND a disappointing game for a Steelers' fan.  However, as Scarlett O'Hara would say, "There's always tomorrow."

The Name Game - Again!

Laura and Jason (with little Mika onboard)

 Since my daughter-in-law is expecting again, it's been fun to come up with possible names.  Of course, I realize that Jason and Laura will choose the baby's name ultimately.  But to pass the time, it has been fun to pass along names as I think of them or as I find nice names in my reading.

1.  One of the first lists I made was of names that I just already liked.  That was a no-brainer.  Names like Harmony, Austin, Liam, Aidan, Autumn, and Stefan.

2.  Then I polled the Commander.  I think he came up with Cassandra and Edward.  I dutifully passed them along.  I also polled my sister-in-law, whose opinion I value.  She contributed such names as Summer, she liked Stefan, and I think she contributed Cody although I'm starting to get a little fuzzy on who liked what.

3.  This morning, since I couldn't sleep in thanks to these darn sinuses, I thought it might be fun to check out some place names.  Since Laura's family is in Texas and our family is in Pennsylvania, I took out the atlas and looked at all the town names to see if I could come up with any inspiration from those.  I also widened the search a tad to include Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio since our roots and relatives include those states.  Here's what I came up with:  Avalon, Bryn, Devon, Shiloh, Addison, Blessing, Sierra, Trinity, Madeira, Amelia, Clare, Milan, Temperance, Dallas, Parker, Penndel, Bryson, Grayson, Joshua, Camden, Fraser, and Mason.

I'm automatically leaving off parental names since that can get a little sticky unless the kids are planning to have four children, two of each sex so that every parent can have a name represented.  Ha!

So what method did you use to pick your children's names?  I find the whole process fascinating.

You Don't Have to Be An Einstein to Knit This Coat

Quite a few years ago - well, four years ago, to be exact - I started knitting a coat.  It was the "Einstein Coat" found in "The Knitting Experience: Book 1: The Knit Stitch" by Sally Melville.

It wasn't a particularly hard coat to knit.  In fact, it was pretty easy.  It just involved knitting row upon row of garter stitch and then picking up stitches along a section and knitting more rows of garter stitch.  
 

 The hardest part was figuring out what yarn I was going to use and what my color scheme would be.  I decided on a rustic wool from Beaverslide Dry Goods.   They are a family-owned business located in Montana.  They raise their own sheep and have a mill where they produce their fabulous mule-spun yarn.  This is a type of yarn that is produced using equipment and techniques from the 1800's.  The yarn still has that lanolin feel to it, something that you don't experience very much with modern yarns today.  Boy, does it produce a warm fabric, too.

When my yarn arrived, I spent hours laying the skeins out in different color sequences until I was happy with the way the colors would progress across my coat.  Once I was at that point, I wrote up a very rudimentary chart on a piece of paper reminding me in what sequence to knit up my stripes in each section of my coat.  Unfortunately, I lost that paper right about the time that I finished the bottom half of the coat so I had to wing it for awhile until I happened to run across my chart when I was about three-fourths of the way through knitting the coat.  If you try this, I would advise you NOT to lose your chart.

I started off making great progress on my coat.  It required mindless knitting and so it was perfect for those times that I spent sitting in front of the TV.  However, at some point I put it aside to work on more challenging projects and there it sat, in a drawer under our sofa for several years.

When I returned from Indonesia in January, I was so darn cold that I remembered my Einstein Coat just languishing away in that drawer.  "Man," I thought, "that would be a really warm coat if only it were finished."  That was all the impetus I needed and so I pulled it out and then spent about one whole evening just trying to figure out where I had left off.  Word of advice - if you ever set aside a project like that, be sure to also set aside VERY clear instructions detailing just where you were when you stopped and where you need to pick up when you begin knitting on it again.

Once I got myself squared away, the rest of the coat flew.  I did find that my fingers were getting pretty sore from pushing the needle through (I use the Continental-style of knitting) to form my stitches.  I ended up solving that dilemma by rooting through my sewing supplies and finding a soft, suede quilter's thimble.  I stuck that on my "pushing" finger and the problem was solved.  Who knew?

I just had to make two modifications to the pattern.  The sleeves needed to be longer so I added more rows and then just turned up the ends of the sleeves to make some cuffs.  I also didn't like how the buttonholes were turning out.  The pattern called for you to knit through the back loop when you came to the yarn over on the next row but that tended to close up the hole.  So I just knitted through the front of the yarn over.

A quick trip to my local yarn store and then I had buttons to sew on the front and I was ready to wear my Einstein Coat.  Thank goodness, too because the weather is supposed to get even colder this weekend.  Brrrr!  Thank goodness that I'll be nice and toasty in my new knit coat.  It doesn't take an Einstein to figure that out.

From Snow Globe to Ice Palace

You'd think, after all these years, that I wouldn't get so excited about a storm coming in.  I'm over 60 years old but when it comes to a winter storm, I'm like a little kid at Christmas.  When morning arrives, I can't wait to hop out of bed and run downstairs to take a peek.  It's the anticipation that always gets me.  Wondering how my ordinary world will be transformed to the extraordinary is the teaser that keeps me young at heart.

I'm sure that my neighbors must wonder about me when they see me standing outside in my nightgown taking pictures before the sun comes up.

However, if I waited until sunrise, just look what I would miss!  Isn't it lovely?  A world-class designer couldn't design lace as lovely as this.

I'm also selfish, I'll admit.  I so enjoy having the neighborhood to myself when the mornings are like this.  It's just me and my camera (and the drips from the gutters falling on my neck).

I run inside to warm up and to make sure that the coffee is going.  The Commander has already been up and about this morning and has a two-hour delay before he has to head over to the Navy base.  He's checked the news (and no doubt, checked it twice).

I still keep popping outside to take more pictures as the sky lightens and the beauty of iced branches changes with the light.

Fresca the Wonder Dog barks to entice me inside.  "What's the matter with you?" she seems to say.  "You can take pictures from inside this warm house.  Just aim out the window."

The Commander is going to have fun trying to get the ice off his car.  I can remember an ice storm in Colorado one winter when I was attending grad school in Fort Collins.  I actually poured very hot water over my windshield in an attempt to chip away at my ice-encrusted car.  It's a wonder that the whole windshield didn't shatter.  Ah, the ignorance of youth!

It's another good day to stay inside and get some more knitting done.  My Einstein coat is completed but it still needs some buttons.

I'm halfway through another square for my Great American Aran Afghan.  As usual, I've made a few errors as I got started but now I'm well into the swing of it and it's going much smoother.

I'll probably pop a few DVDs into the player and watch some more episodes of Buffy.  It's a cute show.  Now I can see why it was so popular.

I WON'T be doing any more cooking today.  We've got a lot of leftovers to clean out.  Speaking of leftovers, I think I'll have a nice big bowl of taco soup for lunch.  That will be just right for an icy day, don't you think?

There's only one fly in the ointment.  I'm completely donut-less.  Boy, I sure would enjoy a glazed cream-filled donut.  Don't you just wish Dunkin' Donuts delivered?