Forward Motion

Super Stripes

Long ago, DH once called a thesaurus a "the-ro-sis" and it cracked us up and he's called it that ever since.  And now after years of this, I find myself unable to spit out the proper pronunciation and it's driving me batty.

Completely unrelated, I finished Grace's Super Stripey Wee Skein socks:

 

Pattern:  Plain stockinette, toe up, with an afterthought heel and 1x1 rib at the cuff

Needles:  Size 2.00mm KnitPick circulars

Yarn:  Vesper sock yarn from Knitterly Things, Wee Skein kit

The Wee Skein kit came with 4 different mini skeins, each with 3 striping colors.  In the photo below, if you look closely you can see I've labeled the colorways.  #1-3, and #5 came with the kit, I added in #4 because there was too much pink and green and Grace loves turquoise.

 

#1 - Astro

#2 - Verbena

#3 - Vinca Vine

#4 - Build Me Up Buttercup

#5 - Watermelon Tourmaline

These were fun to knit, no doubt about it and took me about 3 weeks.  Not so much fun was the fabulous number of ends I had to weave in.  Grace loves them and I just hope they still fit her 6 months from now.  I'm planning on a pair for me, but I think I'll use 6 colorways from my Vesper stash.

It's definitely gotten too hot here to wear socks.  We've had to put the air conditioning on in the last few days.  The nights are lovely and I've gone back to sitting on the porch swing and knitting in the afternoons.  The Zenzi clapotis scarf is probably long enough, but I keep knitting on it because I've got find where I left the pattern so I can do the decrease sections.  I started a new pair of socks in Bugga! yarn and now I need to begin another simple project to keep in my purse.

Thanks for your comments on the Germany/Italy issue!  It seems like the majority would send me to Italy (you must all love pasta, too), except for my mother who doesn't follow directions and didn't choose a country.  I've decided to go back to working on German lessons.  We haven't heard any more information regarding Germany or Italy, but I figure I'll be sure to use the German when I go to the Wollmeise craft markets.  I'm still hoping for Germany, but I just want to know.

I'm pissed as hell a bit miffed that DH's levy briefing on Wednesday was cancelled.  Even if we didn't determine which country, we were hoping to get some information in general about the move overseas.  They've also cancelled the passport application day that was set up in March, which is just stupid.  We've gone ahead and made appointments to get our passport photos done next week anyway.  I'm not going to be stressing out wondering if my passport will arrive in time because of the academy's poor planning.  Not at all coicidentally, I have a hair appointment on Saturday.  I hope I don't spend 3 years carrying a passport with a bad hair photo.

Socks for Two Countries

We'll call the left one Germany and the right one Italy.

Yarn:  Misty Mountain Farms Jubilee, colorway Navajo Sunset

Needles:  2.5mm, KnitPicks circulars

Pattern:  I borrowed a bit from the Cat Bordhi New Pathways book and put the gusset in the middle of the foot.  The ribbing pattern is from a Japanese stitch dictionary.  Toe up, of course.

In the end, I'm very pleased with this pair.  I really like the centered gusset and the wrapped ribs kept the cuff from getting too boring.  The yarn is nice enough, although nothing spectacular.  It's a good thing I didn't fall in love with it, because The Loopy Ewe doesn't seem to carry it anymore, nor does the Misty Mountain Farm online shop list it. 

Still no word on which country we'll be going to.  I'm hoping that we'll officially be in the system as "on assignment" soon.  Once that happens, we can push harder for answers.

Just for fun, which country would you send me to?  If you had the power to determine our assignment, what would you do?  Nevermind the poll I created, it's not working.  Just tell me in the comments, Italy or Germany.

Guten Giorno!

That's Germatalian I'm speaking there.  I was cruising along so well on Rosetta Stone German.  I can tell you all about the boy eating, the girl running, the man drinking, and even....the woman NOT sleeping.  Oh yes, I am one schnitzel away from a dirndl here.  Whatever that means.

DH called Germany yesterday to ask some questions of the housing office.  A very nice lady spoke to him and later sent him the chattiest email I've ever seen from a government employee.  It had next to no information about housing, except for this line: "somewhere I will find a roof to go over your head : )".  She mentioned the good beer in Germany and shared that she was enjoying her morning cup of coffee.  Housing offices are notorious for being less than helpful, but they aren't usually so cheerful about it.

DH had also sent out some emails to The Powers That Be in Germany last week and we hadn't heard much back other than "Uhhh....let me look into that.  You might go to Italy instead, but I dunno."  Today, some emails came his way and well...here are parts of the two emails with certain things xxxed out so I don't get in trouble.

#1:  I talked to CSM Xxxxx  this morning...he said to hold off contacting
housing in either Schweinfurt or Vicenza as he is still trying to figure out
where you will be going exactly...Im not sure if you contacted him or not or
what he may have told you...we still have a little time and I don't want to
see you get set to come one place and end up with you and your family
getting jerked around..

Okay, I understand.  Did I ever tell you about when I went to Italy for the first time in 1992?  My very first duty assignment and I was going to Livorno, Italy, near Pisa.  I got off the plane and some sergeant looks at my name tag and says, "Oh, hey, did you get your message?  You're going to Vicenza instead of Livorno."  So I'm quite familiar with getting jerked around and it's not fun.  The main thing I agree with there is the part about we have a little time.  But I don't think he means it the same way I do.

#2  Here is the deal, I understand everybody is trying to push ahead and
coordinate for your next assignment. I will be frank with you all if there
any coordination's taking place you either do it thru SGM Xxxxx or myself. Presently, I have been told that none of you all been submitted into the system as of yet, once we see that you're on assignment we can change and shape it for our needs. This could take another two weeks or so, make sure you and your families have pass-port and all the necessary paper for your travels. I presently need three xxxx all located in Italy, not Germany. So again don't call housing in Germany because you're not going there unless
your assignment changes.

So, get ready!  But don't call anyone!  You're definitely going somewhere!  Italy, Germany, what's really the difference?

I ended up taking to my bed this afternoon after reading these.  I was just mentally exhausted.  I don't know why it should be such a big deal which country we are going to, but I really need to know.  For me, living overseas is so much better when you can communicate well.  I feel like I could be learning so much German/Italian in these next few weeks, but which one?

I had kind of gotten my heart set on going to Germany.  But while researching Vicenza, I'm starting to remember lots of wonderful things about Italy, too.  The miserable summers are the main drawback, but just hopping on the train and being in Venice in less than an hour?  So awesome.  And really, the food in Italy is waaaay better than Germany.  I'm terrified for my waistline.

The good news is that I have found a name for those socks that I was calling Another Sock.  They are now known as "Socks for Two Countries".

Not too sick to click "Purchase Now"

I feel like I have accomplished little else this week besides sleeping, coughing, and using a ton of Kleenex.  I went grocery shopping on Tuesday and we went out to dinner last night.  Those are the only times I've left the house.

I'm feeling pretty good now, other than some lingering congestion that is keeping the tissue manufacturers in business.  There were really only 2 rotten days of feeling like crap on a cracker and it's not been so bad to have an excuse to lay around and watch the housework pile up.

I should have a finished pair of socks to show you.  However, designing as I go leaves me with the problem of not remembering how I got what I ended up with.  I compared the nearly completed cuff of the 2nd sock to the 1st sock last night and I was way off on the ribbing design.  It was only after I had frogged back to the heel that I realized I could have fixed the problem by turning knits to purls with a crochet hook.  I had some choice words for that sock.

Since I have no interesting knitting to show you, let me share some of my recent yarn purchases.  I've been on a bit of a buying streak (coughSundaracough) in part because in a few months we'll be too close to our transcontinental transition to be ordering stuff that may not arrive in time.  And then after I get to Germany, I'm facing longer shipping times and the whole stress of setting up a new household and yarn ordering will be put on hold for a good while there.  (That sounds like good rationale for ordering yarn now, right?)

We don't know exactly when we'll be leaving nor do we know if we'll be traveling concurrently.  The army issues orders with instructions for either concurrent or nonconcurrent travel for the family members.  Often if there is a long wait for housing at the new post, family members must wait until it's available before traveling so the army doesn't have to pay for them to live in a hotel for months and months.  I'm trying not to think about the fact that we only have a little more than 3 months before this move and it would be NICE if we could get some basic answers about things like this.  I'm also trying not to think about how long 3 years of living overseas is.  I'm definitely not thinking about the fact that I will turn 40 outside of the USA.

Right.

So.  Yarn. 

From Fresh From the Cauldron comes wool/silk blend sock yarns that are named after characters in one of my favorite books series, the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris.  I usually do not read supernatural, science fictiony type stuff, but I just love these books.  It was very hard to choose which colors to get because some of the colors I liked were named after characters I didn't like.  I wouldn't wear Alcide Herveaux socks because he's been kind of a jerk in the books lately.

Eric Northman

 

Sookie Stackhouse

 

I wasn't sure about the Sookie sock because it looked so pale and colorless, but she's the heroine of the books and I had to get her.  It's so much more beautiful in person, with creamy colors and tiny hints of blue and it's become one of my favorite skeins.

She also makes colorways from the Twilight series (which I am somewhat embarrassed to admit I have read).  The colors are gorgeous, but if I wore Bella Swan socks, I'd want to stomp on my own feet much the way I want to reach through the pages and slap her.

If you haven't heard of the Sanguine Gryphon yet, then just ignore this.  You don't need to be lured into the quest for this stuff.  It's not as hard to get as Wollmeise or Sundara (yet), but it's equally amazing and addictive.  You can also buy SG at The Loopy Ewe, my drug fiber dealer of choice.

Bugga! sock in Atlas Moth

Kypria sock in Momos

Traveler sock in Malta.

Of course, I had to buy Traveler sock, because I am so fixing to travel and I love DK weight.  In fact, this week of sniffles proved to me that thick wool socks are actually theraputic.  It feels so nice to have warm, snuggly feet when you're sick.

Also from The Loopy Ewe came sock yarn from Tuscan Grove Venice.  The colorway was Galileo, but I totally bought it because it was called Venice.  DH and I are so excited that we'll be able to go back to Venice & Vicenza and show the kids all the places that we fell in loooove.

Unfortunately, while it's very pretty, I don't think I like that base yarn.  It's very, very skinny and not as tightly plied as I prefer.  I'll have to find another yarn with the Italian connection.

And last in my TLE order was Alpaca Yarn Company Heels & Toes:

Colorway is Frog & Piggy!  I had to get this for Grace, even though the socks will require hand washing. I may end up making her a scarf with it instead.  Clearly I have a serious weakness for yarns with good colorway names.  Speaking of Piggy (who is Grace's most cherished friend),

we are very concerned about her causing mischief on the way to Germany.  After all, she ditched us to party for a few extra days in Orlando and then snuck into the truck when DH and Grace were going on a trip another time.  She's a wild one and we are going to be vigilant to avoid any crazy European adventures.  If you see a slightly tattered pink stuffed pig causing commotion at the Eiffel Tower, you'll know she's escaped again.

Lost, found, and lazy maidens.

Here's a photo from yesterday morning:

 

That is snow.  Snow! (Der Schnee!  Snow is more fun to say in German.)  Grace & I didn't avoid DH's plague germs well enough last week, so we are both coughing and sniffling a bit.  So far, we don't seem to be as sick as he was, so hopefully we'll be over it soon.

Lisa doesn't think it was real snow.  Lisa is from Wisconsin and actually enjoys waking up at 4 a.m.  In the morning.  She's having a contest over on her blog and giving away Optimism.  How 'bout that?  It's still not going to make me think waking up at 4 a.m. is a good idea.

More exciting than snow (for me, at least, the kids would disagree), was what happened yesterday when I opened a dresser drawer to inventory my sock yarn.  Living space and storage areas are going to be much, much smaller overseas and I don't want to cross the ocean with any yarn that I don't truly love.  Once we have real orders and not just the assignment, I'll be doing a destash with some excellent bargains.  Anyway, behind a skein of Malabrigo, I caught a glimpse of:

 

The missing Ravalium sock!!!  When I unpacked all the boxes from this move, I could only find one sock from the pair and I was sure the other had been left in a corner of a moving van somewhere.  Even though I'd looked in the back of the drawers and the innards of that dresser, it must have been stuck deep behind a drawer or something.  I love these socks and I'm delighted to be able to wear the pair again. 

As of about Friday, I am no longer Freaking Out about moving to Germany.  Yay me!  It took me a few days, but now I am usually Almost Excited or Positively Accepting of the whole move to another continent idea.  We still haven't heard back from the unit in Schweinfurt about that "maybe Italy, maybe Germany, who knows" issue.  I feel as certain as I feel about anything the Army tells us that we'll end up in Germany, for what that's worth.  Not selling anything quite yet, though.

The kids and I are working on learning German and it's not as hard as it initially seems.  So many words are nearly identical to English, you just pronounce them like you are choking. 

The German in 10 Minutes a Day book has been very helpful.  I like that it starts out with the imporant words like Who, What, When, Where, How Much, etc.  I'm sure that I'll need to say "How much does this cost?" in German before I need to say "The boy reads".  Yes, I'm talking to you, Rosetta Stone.  DH has access to Rosetta Stone through the Army's education website, so we've all been playing around with it.  It does have audio to listen to, which helps.  It also cracks us up to hear DH basically say "The maiden is lazy" instead of "Das madchen ich lese".  (I think it's "The girl is reading".)

Poor DH.  Spanish is his first language and he had a terrible time in Italy because the languages were just too similar.  Instead of "uno, dos, tres", it was "uno, due, tre" and he generally ended up uttering some kind of Spantalian mess.  If he needed to communicate, he had a trick that always worked.  In the midst of a crowd, he would loudly say, "Hey, who dropped that 20,000 lira?"  If anyone stopped to look, he would catch them and say,
"You!  You speak English!  C'mere!"  (I guess he'll have to modify that for the Euro currency now.)

German in 10 Minutes a Day comes with stickers.  I think everything should come with stickers.

 

(the window)

Amy from Live, Learn, Knit has tagged me with something interesting.  It's that 6th photo thing.  The instructions are *Go to your sixth picture folder and pick your sixth picture.*Pray you remember the details.*Tag five others.

I don't really have 6 pictures folders, so I can't follow the rules exactly.  I have 3 main folders, Becca's Files, Yarn, and Knitting Photos.  Here's the 6th photo from Becca's Files:

 

Ahem.  Yes, I do remember the details of that one!  When we were in Florida in 2007, DH and Alex went to a Tampa Bay Buccaneers football game.  DH claims he was taking this photo for my single brother to see or to test out the zoom or something.  I still say she looks like a Monostat 7 commercial waiting to happen with those tight shorts.

How many Euros does a straightjacket cost?

 

This is Grace's Wee Skein Super Stripey Sock.  It's 5 different colorways of Vesper sock yarn.  And I begin the post with this sock because it's kind of a metaphor.  Imagine that each stripe represents a freakout I have had over moving to Germany.  This sock would cover about 2 hours of the last couple days.

Yeah, it's been keeee-razy.  Especially today, when DH made some calls over to Germany and was told, "Huh...I don't think we have a job for you here, but I understand they need an SGM in Italy.  Maybe that's where you are going."  GAH!  You know, I really just need to know which country to aim my freakouts toward, that's all.  Someone else at branch in DC told DH that he was indeed going to Germany, but we'd have a final answer on Tuesday.

Really, they need to prescribe anti-psychotics along with these assignments.

Now we've been overseas before, but it was 1992-1994.  There was no internet for us then.  Thank God for the internet now.  Not only so that I can stay in touch with my family more easily, but we can get so much information about Germany in minutes.  I won't go into all the things that I've been thinking, because thoughts are just crashing about my head.  Yesterday morning, DH woke up and looked over to see me staring at the ceiling.  "You're thinking so hard you woke me up", he said.  So let me give you a basic Good Stuff/Bad Stuff list.

Good Stuff about moving to Germany

- hello, Wollmeise!!

- 6 hours from Paris!

- 8 hours from Venice!

- 7 hours from the original Legoland in Denmark.

- really good french fries

- actual weather!  I can knit socks that will get worn daily and scarves!

- DH is very excited about the assignment. He has no desire to try and trade it off, so I'm trying to keep my freakouts at a manageable level.  This is the 1st time in a while that he's been more enthusiastic about moving than I am.

- skiing!

- German Christmas markets.  We'll be an hour from the biggest one in Germany.

- castles!

Bad Stuff about moving to Germany

- We are only authorized to ship one vehicle so DH must sell his big old truck.  He'll probably buy a small car once he's in country, but he loves this truck.  If he were to try and store the truck somewhere for 3 years, we couldn't afford for him to get a car for Germany.  Not to mention letting a vehicle sit for 3 years isn't great.

- Europe runs on a different electrical system than the US.  That means selling my washer and dryer and microwave.  We don't feel like it's a good idea for them to sit in storage for 3 years either.

- Bookstores.  I will miss Barnes & Nobles and Borders very much. 

- actual weather!  I'm going to freeze.  I remember visiting Germany in July in 1992 and having to buy sweat pants at the PX because I was so cold.

- Very small housing.  The army gives me this great big house with a huge kitchen, then I have to adjust to a tiny apartment.  Let's not even discuss going from 3 bathrooms down to one.

- small or no closets.

- the challenges of keeping my job while overseas.  My dad/boss is more than willing to work it out because most everything I do is online.  But the time difference and the cost will likely prohibit phone calls which will be more complicated.

- not having as many other home schoolers in the community.  I just hope we won't be the only ones.

- getting our poor, little, nervous doggie overseas on an airplane.  She's going to be a wreck.

- living out of suitcases for weeks/months until our stuff crosses the ocean.

I told DH that while the good stuff is indeed good, it's all kind of vague and hard to imagine.  The bad stuff is very vivid and concrete.  As much as I love the idea of seeing Europe again, the reality is that I'm kind of a homebody.  A homebody who likes to know exactly where and when and what.  So this move has pushed me so far out of my comfort zone that I can't even see my comfort zone anymore.

But I'm learning.  I'm working on German and a trip to the library and the bookstore provided me with learning material.  I'd like to ask the Germans to please use more vowels and stop putting funny marks over them.  Honestly, as difficult and complicated as it is to move overseas, I would rather do it than go to some of the stateside locations that other's have been assigned.  Sure, they get to keep their washer/dryer, but there's nothing but Walmart for an hour's drive at some of these bases.

Each day I get a little more used to the idea and get a little more information.  It's interesting that on our corner of the neighborhood, our little 4 house group, 2 people are going to Korea, one is going to Hawaii, and we're going to Germany (or Italy) (probably).  I foresee an excellent corner yard sale this spring. 

Thank you all very much for being excited with me.  Your comments were great to read!

And here it is...

No, for real this time.

My neighbors behind me are going to Hawaii.  Some friends are going to Ft. Stewart, GA.  Others to Ft. Campbell, KY.  Others are facing an immediate deployment to Afghanistan, so minimum 1 year apart.

Us?

 

Well, let's just say I'm going to be closer to Wollmeise than ever before.

Schweinfurt, Germany.

While I recognize that this is really exciting and probably wonderful, I'm a little too freaked out right now to absorb that.

Nothing is totally engraved in stone right now, we have an opportunity to trade with someone going to Ft. Stewart, GA.  I doubt that we will do that, but the news is only hours old, so lots can still change.

Random Post #54

1.  No, not yet.

2.  We found out the Chinese restaurant that we enjoy(ed) and were planning to go to for Grace's birthday on the 19th has been closed for health code violations.  Namely, a rat found on the buffet.  Which is gross, but I will really miss the sesame buns and the beef & broccoli.

3.  Finished the first of the Another Sock pair.  Really need a better name for those.

4.  Started the Super-duper Stripey socks for Grace.  Four different colorways of Vesper sock yarn in one sock.  It's fabulous and working up quickly.  Because stripes!!  Fun to knit!  And her foot is smaller.

5.  DH is a walking plague.  He's sneezing, sniffling, wheezing, and coughing.  I'm trying not to breathe his air, but it's probably hopeless.  He's being surprisingly tough about it though, so maybe it's all external noise and snot and not really the horrible kind of flu-feeling.

6.  How do you know your kid is really big?  When he outgrows his bed.  Alex is a very restless sleeper and we could hear him thrashing and banging into the wall at night.  His feet hung off the end of his single bed.   Craigslist to the rescue and he's now got a nice wooden futon and he actually can fit all his limbs on the mattress.

7.  I love February because I love candy conversation hearts.  Except for the white ones.

ASK and you get nothing...

So this is kind of funny, only not.  Friday afternoon one of our neighbors calls and anxiously tells DH to go online and check his ASK (Assignment Satisfaction Key, the wildly optimistic name for the page on Army Knowledge Online [AKO] that displays future assignments).  He checks and can't get anything but a grey screen.  She frantially tells him that she can't get anything to come up on her ASK either and no one else can and THISISITTHEASSIGNMENTISCOMING!

Which is possible, except 7 times out of 10 we can't get some part of AKO to work.  So, just the usual poorly functioning web site?  Or something .... more?

And my first thought was, "Well, of course.  They are getting ready to update our assignments.  This is just like what happens on the yarn websites like Wollmeise right before they do updates."   

Rumors are still flying.  Grey screens or no, some say it wil be 2 more weeks before we get our assignments.  I think it is amusing that on the training schedule there is a levy briefing scheduled for Feb. 26.  The levy briefing is the one that is mandatory to attend before you move.  So - a move briefing in 3 1/2 weeks for a move we know nothing about yet. 

I'm channeling my nervous energy into naps and knitting.  Here's a progress shot of Another Sock:

I really need to come up with a better name for this project.  The sock isn't turning out anything like I'd planned, wait....I didn't really plan anything, so it's all good.  I've definitely been designing as I go, but I like it.  The center gusset increase worked great and I think it might even fit my foot better than the traditional side gussets method.

Plain ribbing is slow and boring for me, so I did some wraps around the ribs.  Found the idea in, of course, a Japanese stitch dictionary.

I'm so glad American Idol is moving on to Hollywood semi-finals this week.  I could not take any more auditions.  That one young girl, who lived with friends because her parents had died, the blond girl with the rag doll looking hair?  I was totally into her story, thought she sang pretty well, and then....her feet.  She was barefoot and as she leaped for joy at getting through to Hollywood, the bottoms of her feet were disgustingly black.  Sorry, Rose, I won't ever vote for you.

My lovely assistant, Grace, shows you the length of the American Idol knitting project, the Zenzi Clapotis scarf.

 

Wow...it really isn't a very attractive project from the looks of that!  In reality, it's gorgeous and I'm going to wear it as a fabulous casual accessory like Drew Barrymore does in Music & Lyrics.