Forward Motion

Contest Time! Wollmeise!

Contest is closed!  Thank you to all who entered!

Thank you so much to everyone for all your nice comments throughout this whole selling the house and moving to TX thing.  Today at the orthodontist we were trying to fit in all the appointments for Grace's brace removal and retainer fittings and I felt very agitated to realize that we only have 4 more weeks here.  And really, that last week has Memorial Day and then the movers come and then we close on the house, so that's going to be kinda busy.  I still have not picked up our school portraits from the photographer that we had taken in OCTOBER!  I am 7 months behind on tasks and I've got to get ready to leave in 4 weeks?

I better stock up on the Diet Cherry Coke.

I asked for good vibes that we'd sell the house and I promised that when it did sell, I'd give away a skein of Wollmeise sock yarn.  Obviously, my blog readers are not messing around when it comes to vibes/prayers/good wishes.  Within 3 weeks, we've got a cash buyer.  Whoohooo!  Mr. Clean and I have broken off our relationship.  It wasn't him, it was me.  We're trying to stay friends.

I love this yarn and I've been fortunate to successfully emerge from the Wollmeise feeding frenzies a few times and now I've got a nice drawer full of skeins.  Plenty of others haven't been lucky enough to try this yarn so it's time for me to pass along some of the  love in the form of gorgeous German string.  Just leave a comment on this post and you'll be in the running for one of these skeins:

Winner's choice!  I hated to presume what the winner might prefer, so he/she can pick (from left to right) Gewitterhimmel, Drachenblut, or Lowenzahn.  All are 80/20 superwash.  The Drachenblut and the Lowenzahn are medium intensity and I think the Gewitterhimmel might be dark, but it is not labeled as such.  It's a blend of deep dark blues.  Aren't they all beautiful?  And they smell nice, too.  Sorry, I already ate the Gummy Bears that come with them.

So what if you are thinking to yourself, "Becca, I am so happy your house is under contract, but I don't knit and I have no use for that crazy Wollmeise stuff."  Now, I know that there are some readers that aren't knitters and I hate to leave them out.  I appreciate all the great support that has come my way!  If you want to be a part of the contest, but don't want yarn, then let me know in the comments.  At first I thought I'd offer to knit you a pair of socks from the Wollmeise, but ummm.....no.  How about a $35 Amazon gift certificate so you can buy whatever it is you non-knitters buy when you have fun money.  May I recommend a knitting book?

Be sure when you leave a comment that you also leave me a way to contact you.  Next week, I'll randomly choose a comment.  The winning comment gets either one skein of Wollmeise or a $35 Amazon gift certificate.   

Good & Plenty

I love Good & Plenty.

Friday and Saturday were just burbling over with plenty of good news, which is what made me think of the candy.  In balance, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to wake up this morning with my head pounding, my throat scratchy, and my sinuses clogged.  DH has been miserably fighting this bug all week and finally succeeded in giving it to me.  Luckily, all the good news has kept me cheerful for now.

On Friday, we got the results from the home inspection and there's nothing expensive to fix.  While that's excellent news, the best part is that once we signed off on the amendment, the due diligence period ended!  I'm so tired of typing due diligence on here, you just don't know.  I bet you're probably tired of reading about it.  But barring anything catastrophic, the deal is locked in.  32 more days.

Saturday morning, DH tells me we've got our address.  I stared at him blankly.  Address?  Where?  Let me tell you, things in the army have changed since the last time we lived on post.  No more "sign in with the housing office when you arrive at your new duty station and you'll get a house in a week to 2 years."  Apparently the dingbat that DH talked to last week really did assign us the newer 4 bedroom house we requested.  I guess I better stop calling her names. 

Not only is our housing assignment confirmed, they have already assigned us to a specific house and given us our new address.  We can now do things like get our mail forwarded right away and make an appointment for cable & internet hookup.  Before we even get there.  We also won't have to stay in a hotel when we arrive because we'll get the keys to our house that day.  I am beyond astonished.  The housing office making a military move easier?  It's nothing short of madness!

We tried to Google Earth the house so we could check it out, but it was apparently built after the satellite snapped the picture.  There's nothing but a razed area of earth.  Even Mapquest doesn't have our street.  I'm trying to find someone from Ravelry or the homeschooling boards in the area who'll go drive by and take photos of our house for us.

On Saturday I bought a swimsuit that I don't hate.  Hey, that is considered good news, really.  It's not perfect because it has some sparkly bits on it, but I had to get something, since none of my old suits fit me anymore.  Stupid Lands End had the suit I wanted back ordered until July.  When summer would be half over.  At least now I don't have to go through any more soul-crushing experiences of badly lit dressing rooms and wriggling into ugly, ill-fitting suits.  Whose idea was it to make all the swimsuits halter tops this year?  Probably the same idiot who is putting puffy sleeves on all of this season's shirts.  Haaaate that.

As of Saturday night, the Dream in Color sweater is finished  After my anguish about the bottom rolling up, a few of you suggested that I block the border of the sweater before drastically ripping out the garter border.  I'd thought of that myself, but hadn't wanted to go through the whole thing with getting the sweater all wet.  Then I remembered that I'd bought a steamer thingy a while ago.  I'm not sure how I managed to forget buying this, especially since I'd bought it exactly for the purpose of blocking knits.

I blasted the front part of the bottom border with the steamer and let it dry for a bit.  Sure enough, it obediently lay flat, without any attempt at rolling.  So all that was left was to finish the last sleeve, work the neck border, and weave in the ends.  It's now hanging out blocking on towels after a nice full immersion soak.

Lastly, I gave in and pre-ordered Wii Fit.  I can't help it.  It looks like so much fun.  It'll be released a few days before we move, so I won't get to play with it until after we get settled in.  Let's hope I don't get a tour of our new hospital after breaking an ankle on that balance board. Because "Becca" and "balance" are not two words that really go well together.

H is for....

....Homeschooling.

Are you one of those people who says, "Oh, I could never homeschool my kids!"?  Yeah, me too.  But here I am, here we are, in our 8th year of homeschooling.  And H is the 8th letter of the alphabet!  (I checked twice four times, because wouldn't that just be such a endorsement of homeschooling if I counted the alphabet wrong?)

8 Things about our homeschooling lives:

1.  My kids are with me every day, pretty much all day.  Mostly, we like each other and enjoy being together.  We do make an effort to find our own quiet times so we aren't in each other's hair 24/7.  Are they sheltered?  Yes, a little bit.   I think it's a good thing.  Are they properly socialized?  More so than their mother, probably.

2.  As successful as I think our homeschooling journey is, it's not all reading the classics and cozily doing fractions and taking advantage of roadkill for science experiments*.  There has been frustration and yelling and sobbing.  The kids have done some of that, too.  Now and then, I have threatened to put them on the school bus the next day if they don't shape up.  A totally hollow threat.  As if I could even get out of bed by the time the school bus shows up.

3.  The Georgia Home Education Association conference is coming up on May 1-3 in Atlanta.  I love going to the conventions and getting to touch and see the huge variety of curriculum available.**  It motivates me and reminds me how fortunate we are to have to opportunity to educate our kids at home.  I have given up any pretense of attending the seminars because I cannot concentrate on "Making Algebra Fun" or "Bring out the Genius in your Slacker" when there is a book hall full of massive stacks of curriculum calling me.  I just buy the audio CDs of the seminars and then forget to listen to them.   

4.  I think we have been most successful in our study of math (because I have worked hard to find what curriculums work for my kids and then I teach what the math book tells me to teach them) and English (because my kids are naturally good readers & writers).  We have been least successful in science (because I'm a lazybutt who doesn't like messy experiments, although this year has been our best yet as the kids have curriculums that don't require my interference help) and history (because I have hated nearly every history program we've tried and next year the kids are going to have curriculums that don't require me to read aloud Johnny freakin' Tremain).

5.  My kids are completely different students. I can be nearly certain that if one kid dislikes a program, the other will probably do great with it and vice versa.  Grace hates to be "taught".  It was such a relief when she could read well enough to read her own instructions.  She is definitely one who wants to figure it out on her own.  You can see her physically quivering with frustration when I have to provide much guidance.  Alex prefers constant guidance, and if I refuse that, then he wants flashcards of every single possible variety of problem he might encounter, and maybe a DVD tutorial if available.  My experience with one kid is mostly useless for the other.  Grace loves to write.  Alex thinks pencils are evil.

6.  We had Student-Teacher conferences last week.  Each kid and I sat down with our current curriculum and a pile of catalogs and talked about what we would be looking for at the convention. 

What curriculum was working for us, what did we want to ditch, what did they want to study, what way did they want to study it?  It was gratifying to see them give me constructive feedback and ideas.  This is their education.  More and more, I'm becoming advisor more than teacher.  (This was different than a Parent-Teacher conference, which is when I talk to myself.)

7.  I began homeschooling Alex in January right when he turned 5.  My thinking was we'd try it for a few months and if it was a complete disaster, I could still put him in kindergarten in the fall.  Because of that, we consider January the start of our homeschool year and promote the kids then.  Although, the only reason they know what "grade" they are in is to compare with their public school friends.  We don't really pay attention to grades and levels.  They do the work they are capable of doing, no matter what the publisher says the grade level is.  When they finish a level, they move on to the next one.

8.  We have a PopTart Appreciation Seminar scheduled each day at 10 a.m.  Attendance is not mandatory, but if a student skips it, there will be no early lunch.

*I personally have never used roadkill for science projects, but I have a friend who would pick it up and keep it in her freezer.  They'd later bury it outside and once all the gooey parts had been returned to the earth, they'd analyze the bones or whatever.  Her kids are fantastic, brilliant girls, but I never ate ice cream at her house.

**I do have wardrobe issues at the conference, though.  I won't wear a skirt, denim or otherwise, because I refuse to perpetuate a stereotype.  (I do amuse myself by counting denim jumpers.)  Sometimes I want to buy curriculum from the Mennonite publishers.  Their material is generally excellent and well priced and you go sit in the booth and have your order taken by the nicest people on the planet who wear long sleeved and high necked dresses and little doily-like caps on their long hair.  One year I wore shorts and a scoop neck top, my usual summer attire, and I felt like a naked hussy as I placed my order.

Border Patrol

The knowledge that we are moving in 38 days has compelled me not to stop ordering things, but to hurry up and order things!  Because in a few weeks, I won't be able to order things for fear that they'll arrive after we move.  And then I won't have an address or a dependable internet connection for a while.  I'll be on ordering suspension!  A package on the way also makes me feel better as I wait for the due diligence clock to run out.  8 more days. 

The inspection was yesterday, but I haven't heard anything yet.  We do have cautious hope that we'll be able to move right after closing.  After a week of ignoring DH's calls, just this afternoon the dingbat at Ft. Bliss housing promised us a newer 4 bdrm house as soon as we arrive.  She kind of sounded like she would throw in a unicorn and some magic turnip seeds, too, so I'm still making hotel reservations.

My latest Loopy Ewe purchase is actual to HELP with the move.  Yes, it only makes sense to buy things that make moving easier, right?  Really, this was practically free because I had a TLE credit and a PayPal balance.

I used to have all my circular needles draped in a heap around my straight needles.  Then when I had to tidy up the house for showing, I stuffed them all into a big tote bag.  Neither system was at all practical and I had to detangle every time I needed needles.  This Needle Book by Lawre's Laine fits all of my Knit Picks circulars, plus a few Addis & Hiya Hiya needles.  It looks pretty stuffed, but there's still space for more needles without straining the strap.  Plus, it's pretty.  All the fabrics were beautiful, but I went with the one most likely to hide dirt and scuffs.

Hey, look, it's a nearly completed Dream in Color sweater!  Except not exactly.  'Member when I mentioned doing a garter stitch border instead of ribbing?  Well, whatever.  I mentioned it.  Then I saw this post on The Redshirt Knitting blog about no flip bands and it seemed like that was the confirmation I was waiting for.  I did the two rows of seed stitch before beginning the garter band.

And the son of a biscuit is still rolling like a bowling ball.  I'm working myself up to the resignation that I'm going to have to rip out this bottom band and the one sleeve band I've done and reknit them in ribbing.  And just hope the ribbing doesn't look awful on me.

Things that I do not think I will ever knit

Sock yarn with metal in it. 

Anything orange.

A rug.

One last hit from the Ravalium Socks

I'm a little sad to be done with these socks now.  They had such a unique, calming effect on me when I'd knit them.  I started a new pair of socks but there isn't that same "....ahhhhh..." feeling.

Ravalium Socks

Yarn - Cherry Tree Hill Special, colorway Cosmic Dawn

Pattern - my own, another adapted from the Japanese stitch dictionary

Needles - size 1, 2.25 mm

Method - toe-up, short row heel, one at a time, Magic Loop

This was my first time using Cherry Tree Hill yarn and I loved it so much I ordered a few more skeins before this pair was even finished.  I wanted to try this pattern on a multi-colored yarn because I thought it would be great for breaking up pooling.  It turned out to be super easy to memorize and doing the slip stitches was entertaining.  The yarn overs aren't as visible as I wanted, but I like the little slip stitch bridges across the foot.

These socks reminded me that I kind of hate short row heels.  While working on the second pari, on the second half of the heel where you are picking up double wraps, a stitch slipped off the needle.  It was a disaster and I had to tink back most of the heel.  Even so, both heels look sloppy to me.  I'm back to my faithful gusset & heel flap from now on.

The Dream in Color sweater has a finished body now and part of a sleeve.  The sleeves go soooo much faster than the body and I'm pleased to see that it's unlikely that I'll run short of yarn.  I did notice that a weird bit of pooling occured in the body and there's sort of a Chinatown Apple colored lightning bolt on my belly.  But I do not care enough to do anything about it and prefer to think that I will start a trend.

I dug deep, deep into the stash for this new pair of socks and emerged with Perchance to Knit sock yarn in Pale Spring Rose.

It seems like the perfect time of year for this colorway.  I bought this the second time that I ordered from the Loopy Ewe, back in March of '07.  Holy crap, was it only a year ago that I started my sock yarn stash in earnest?  Heeeheee...I can remember when I could fit all my sock yarn in one bin under the bed.  That was so cute.

I don't have any actual pale spring roses in my yard, but that skein matches my azaleas pretty well.

**deep breath**

Alright then.  The house.  I will tell you, but you must promise to hold your breath and keep your fingers crossed and fashion a good omen out of toilet paper rolls and stitch markers.

We are under contract.

I know!  Less than 3 weeks on the market in "this economy".  They made an offer, we cringed and made a counter-offer, and they accepted.  There are contingencies and of course, about 63 ways the whole deal could fall apart, but Ed the realtor is feeling confident.  And get this.  It's a cash offer.  Ed was practically frothing about that part. 

The next step is the home inspection on Monday.  We know they'll find stuff wrong because that is the idea. We just have to hope that they don't find anything terrible or expensive.  I'm much more nervous now that we have a contract than I was before.  We are still keeping the house ready and available for showings, but I confess I haven't touched a Magic Eraser in a few days. 

The contract has a 14 day "due diligence" period that began yesterday, which I think means a time frame where they can back out for any little reason.  Ed says we can relax after the due diligence period is over.  Because there is no financing to fuss with, that eliminates many of the reasons the deal might fall apart.  I am still maintaining a healthy pessimism because I don't want it to feel like the end of the world if we end up back at square one.

The toughest part about the offer was not the price, but the closing date.  We'd planned to leave for TX on June 20th, based on what the military allowed us for moving time.  They wanted to close on May 21st.  That's nearly a month of living in a hotel before we even get on the road.  We countered with May 30th and are fervently hoping that we'll be able to let both this post and our gaining post allow us to go ahead and move on May 31st.  If not, we feel like we've gotten a good enough price that will pay for the time living in limbo and possibly enough for the therapy I will surely need after weeks in a small room with two kids and a dog.

Assuming this deal goes through, we'll be out of our house in 44 days.  The thought makes me a little dizzy.

You realize that this means there is Wollmeise to be given away?  It occured to me that I said I'd give it away when the house was sold, but I didn't really define "sold".  So I'm going to say once the due diligence period has passed, we'll consider it sold enough.  April 29th will be day 15 and I'll post the details of the giveaway. 

All of you have done such a great job sending "SELL" vibes, now if you could shift over to "CLOSE THE DEAL" vibes, I'm sure everything will be just fine.  Knitters have amazing vibes.

G is for...

Grace.  There.  I did the "G" post in time.

I'm totally phoning this one in.  I never did think of a creative "G" for the ABC Along and I nearly did a post titled "G is for I quit."  But then I realized I have a perfect little "G" running around the house and plenty of photos of her, too.  This picture is about 3 1/2 years old, so she would have been 6 1/2.  That's my mom's poodle, Ringer, who died last year.  Grace loved that dog so much and he was so patient when she'd dress him up.  This image of her is probably how I will remember her as a little girl.  She's 10 now and well on her way to leaving behind all her little girl days.

I can't tell you much more about the house offer at this point, other than it's still alive.  And the true reality of actually not living here and driving across Texas and living someplace that I've never seen before is hitting me.  HARD.

No G. No knitting, either. Just a mental jettison of stray blog thoughts.

I need to come up with a "G" post by tomorrow for the ABC Along.  But I had all these TV related thoughts, none of which I can reasonably stretch to relate to a "G" title.  I have one rather boring idea to fall back on, but hopefully I'll come up with something more creative tonight.

So I've pretty much been watching American Idol this season, even though I'm not that excited about any one of the singers.  Jason Castro, though.  So pretty!  And likely stoned!  But he's got such a calm, even (again, possibly chemically altered) manner and his voice is really nice.  The dreads still squick me out, but his eyes are so dreamy.  And sadly, I actually am old enough to be this kid's mother had things in my senior year of high school gone another way.

Brooke, the blond one, I like her.  Stop crying, though, honey.  Someone on the AI Ravelry board calls David A. "Basket of Puppies" and that says it all.  The Australian guy, Michael Johns lost me when he wore a cravat.  A friggin' cravat.  No.  Is that what got him eliminated?  I figure David Cook will win this thing, but I can't really care.

I was going to watch a little of "Idol Gives Back" the other night, but the first time I turned to it, I saw Miley Cyrus talking to Billy Crystal.  Luckily, I was able to change the channel before the wave of loathing gave me a stroke.  The next time I flipped over to the show, Fergie was flopping all over the stage, singing a Heart song with Ann & Nancy Wilson.  I dared not risk a third attempt at Idol Gives Back or I'd be giving back my dinner in a most unpleasant way.

And really, has Seacreast always been such a dillweed?  Or was that special for last night?

There's still a few weeks before new House episodes, but I've been doing my TV knitting in front of the computer watching old episodes of Life.  Because Damien Lewis is my new TV crush.  Mmmm-hmmm.

This Should Be Better

Some blogger I am.  First I post a photo of myself looking homicidal, then I give you a photo of a big huge stinkbug.

Allow me to cleanse your eyeballs of those nasty images.

Sundara sock yarn, colorway Basil over Buttercup.  Doesn't it look positively edible?  However, the yardage is only 350 yds.  I didn't realize that when I bought it.  With all the fabulous sock yarn out there at 400+ yards, I don't think I'd buy more of this yarn, even though her colors are stunning.

Numma Numma Toasty in colorway Red Raspberry Jam.  I bought this at Knitch on Sunday before the book signing.  It's very soft and fluffy.  It's also giving me an urge to make toast.

Is your visual palate cleared?  How about some Wollmeise for dessert?

 

Dani, Brombeere, and Johannisbeer und Brennessel.  All acquired through trades with other very nice Wollmeise owners.

It's entirely possible that I've now bought much too much sock yarn.  What's that you say?  DUHHHH?  I know.  Today a package arrived and in it was a lovely skein from Spindle City Yarns (By way of The Loopy Ewe.  I am helpless to resist a TLE sneakup.  I should block the site from my computer.  In all honesty, there was not just one skein in the package.)  A mix of gorgeous blues and greens that unfortunately looks almost identical to another skein in my stash.  I've overloaded my mental sock yarn inventory system and now I'm buying near duplicates.

Now, don't get all excited, but we've got an offer on the house.  Yesterday, a van pulled up into our driveway and I poked my head out the door to find a lady asking, "You got my message, right?"  I don't know what number she called, but it wasn't mine.  The kids and I rocketed into action, grabbed the dog, and abandoned the house.  It made me glad we've been keeping up on the cleaning every morning, but kind of wishing I'd rethought my stained purple capris and baggy peach tshirt I was dressed in.  I thought I would be staying home with Mr. Clean all day.  Ed the realtor told me this afternoon that the offer was waiting in his mailbox and we had till 4 p.m. tomorrow to respond to it. 

We have no idea what the offer is and it could be total crap.  I'm purposely being pessimistic about it to keep things realistic.  We can't really leave here until June 20th.  They may not want to wait that long to close.  The buyers had a list of questions that made me think they weren't even going to offer on it.

Even if this is not the time that we sell the house, I'm just happy that more people are looking at it and liking it.  It's only been 3 weeks on the market, so this is all a good thing no matter how it plays out.  Maybe, just maybe, I'll be giving away that skein of Wollmeise I promised sooner than I'd thought.