A Shane Update!

Yarns: Red Heart Pooling, Premier Just Yarn, Red Heart Eco, unknown grey yarn that I really like

  Shane had been to see a bunch of specialists, but they all agreed that surgery would be the easiest way to see what was going on in there.  He had it two days ago and now he's resting up and working on healing.

  While we were waiting for him to get his eye rummaged around in, another person was picking up a different patient.  The person was told to get the car and to pull up in front "like you own the place" and then they would bring her down.

  They found a bump, and some old blood under the retina from an abnormal blood vessel.  Dr. Chen thinks, to be on the safe side, that he should see a tumor specialist, but that will have to wait until he is healed from this ordeal.  The initial plan was to have him stay face down for a while, but since Dr. Chen had to add an air bubble to help some thinning, the plans were changed.  He gets to sit up and sleep on his side.  So far, he has been doing pretty good but gets tired easily.

  I don't know if everyone was starting to get bored with seeing me keep making the same few patterns again and again, so I'm continuing to mix it up.  I'm also trying to take more pictures of things that are in progress, so I don't feel like I have to wait until I finish something to start a blog post.

Bats, Furry Worms, and a Long Day

Pattern: Bat Hat by B.Hooked - Yarn: Red Heart Eco-Ways in 3114 Chamois (yellow) and 3372 Petal (pink) - Needle: US 8

   It might look like I made two hats with opposite coloring and the same pattern, but it's actually just one hat.  I tried my hand at colorwork double knitting again.  I spent the first part of the hat working it the hard way for me.  I forgot that I had gotten really good at using both hands to hold the yarns separately.  I hold the knit color in my left and the purl in my right.  It's easy for me because I can work continental knitting pretty well and then throw the purl like I normally would.  The wonky tension issues at the beginning aren't helped by the fact that even though they are the same yarn, the pink is a bit thinner.

  I really like the pattern and want to experiment with different ideas having to do with the double knitting.  One idea is to have half the hat have one color be the background and have the other half be inversed with a bat on each half.

  I'm back on the Worry Worm train.  It might be because I've done some fairly large projects recently, but I forgot how much I liked making them.

  I got another yarn from The Dollar Tree, some chenille yarn this time.  They are really soft and nice to touch.  The yarn wasn't hard to work with when doing the crochet part, but it kept wanting to come apart when I was trying to tie it at the end and weave in my ends.

  I've started another double knit hat.  I have enough yarn to have made another bat hat, but I wanted something with an easier chart this time.  I also wanted to try using a crochet cast on to see if that would help the bottom lay flatter instead of puffing out.  It worked better, but I think using a larger needle to cast onto would help even more.

  Now to get into the long day.  It's technically three days, but it feels like one long one.  On Friday Bill, Ryan, Shane, and I headed south to William & Mary college to see another Rocky Horror group.  Our friend Laila was the director of this show and we wanted to support her.  The show was a lot of fun and someone gave us a sealed bag of Insomniac cookies while we were hanging out afterwards.  Both Bill and I were tired, and we also both had to be up fairly early the next morning.  We got home about 4:35 am and though I got a bit of sleep in the car, it wasn't much.  I was then back up at 7:12 am to get ready to go into work.  My tire was low, so I refilled it in the rain.

  I didn't feel too bad at work, but definitely needed another nap before Heather and Jim's holiday party.  The party had a lot of good food and I got to meet new people and talk to some I haven't seen in a while.

  I had thought about possibly getting another nap in before our Rocky Horror show, but there wasn't enough time.  Shane and I helped Ryan get ready and we rocked out to Free Bird in the parking lot.  The show went well, and I think the audience had a lot of fun.  Bill and I didn't go to IHOP because we had to be up again before too long once again.

Click to see more details

  On the way out to the property we are considering getting, we had to try two gas stations.  Near the second gas station, near the Floor & Decor there was a mini car show.  I liked the color of the chartreuse one.

  We are looking at a vacation kind of house with a lot of forest around it.  The land used to be the water supply of Hopwood back in the day.  The house was very interesting.  They were a fan of carpet in bathrooms and sinks in every room, even the bedrooms.  There were 8 children, so a lot of rooms with connecting bathrooms.  There is even a rock feature in the living room with water around it.

Moooozzarell, Marilyn's Onion Soup, Martilyn’d Creamy Garlic Chop, and Ithaca Chai Pumpkin beer.

  After a small hike around the property we stopped by Marilyn's on Main for lunch.  If we do get the property, I think I'll want to come here fairly often.  The house is a little weird, but the forest was really pretty.  I did a check and there is a Hobby Lobby and a Michaels not too far from the house.  Next weekend Bill and my dad are going to check it out and see how he feels about it.

It's Still Spooky Season To Me!

  Back on November 4th, it was the last day for Fear Deluxe Admission so Ryan, Bill, and I decided to go to Cox Farms.  We wanted Shane to come with us, but he was busy.  To help stagger people in the attractions we got a card telling us what time slots we had for each event.  We started with The Forest, then to the Cornightmare, and finished with the Darkside Hayride.  I did like the hayride the best because there were a lot more haunt actors appearing from almost nowhere.  The party barn was my favorite part, along with the falling fence bit.  I'm glad we all went together.

Pattern: Swirling Drop Hat - Yarn: unknown blue cotton dk - Needle: US 6

  I thought I had finished this a while ago, but had left it halfway through the last row.  I thought by using a smaller hook and slightly thinner yarn that I could make the hat small enough to fit on Bill's head, but it's still a bit loose.  I know it will fit someone, but I don't know if it's too big to be a size made by many people.  My new thought on it is to use a bigger yarn again and make one size smaller, so maybe it will be the dimensions that I was hoping for.

Pattern: Feather and Fan Shawl - Yarn: Sundance Classic Elite Yarn in 6220 (Celery Spring) and 6250 (Straw Hat) - Needle: US 6

  I only had one skein of the green and used most of six skeins of yellow for the body.  I wanted to try making the pattern with random amounts of yarn instead of working up to a certain row like I did when I designed it.  I already made a change to the pattern, but I still need people to test it since I've been the only one to knit it so far.

  At one point Ryan showed an interest in trying to learn how to do some knitted colorwork.  I did a quick search for spooky colorwork patterns and found this Bat Hat.  I then remembered it later and wanted to make it as well, but for some reason couldn't find it again.  It took me a few hours over a few days, but I was finally able to find it.  I know it's supposed to be a spooky themed design, but I like the idea of it being in cute pastel colors.  It's been a while since I've done any colorwork, so my tension is wonky and I'm pretty slow at it.  I am having a lot of fun though, so it should be done soon.  While searching for the pattern I did find a bunch of other Spooky Knit Colorwork patterns.

Another Whirlwind of Activities

   Since Shane had never been there before, Ryan and I decided that we were all going to Cox Farm for the fall festivities on Thursday.  Our timing was a bit off because we were there when a lot of the field trip children were still there, but it was a lot of fun anyway.  One of the workers asked Ryan if he ever considered working for the Fields of Fear that they have after dark, and he got a lot of compliments on his Halloween themed hair throughout the day.  Ryan got more apple-butter and Shane got some cider for the house.  There was also the obligatory bag of caramel corn that came home with us.  I wanted to take a lot of the animals home with me, but they wouldn't let me, even if we could have fit one of the goats into the back of Shane's car.

  We left a bit late on Friday for the wedding near Richmond, but since there had been two hours of wiggle room built into the timing of the trip, we weren't worried.  We got on the road after grabbing something quick to eat in the car and started making good time.  We hit our first slowdown, but it didn't seem so bad.  Then we kept hitting slowdowns that just kept adding time.  At one point the GPS just added 40 minutes for no reason we could tell.  Our original planned time of arrival being a little after 3pm had now become 6:30pm and the cemetery closed at 6pm.  Ryan was scoping out lanes and we may have gone a little fast, but we got there right before it was going to close.  The guard at the gate seemed confused when we said we were there to marry someone, but the grounds keeper knew what was happening and let us in.

  The second we were going to start the ceremony, a train decided to roll through.  After we all took a quick train break it was time to start.  Victoria looked so beautiful.  Shane got some good Rocky Horror puns into the ceremonial words and everyone had a good time.

  It was then time to go to the AirBnB and have the reception.  The table décor was nice and spooky.  There were some snacks, but the main meal was really good Chinese food with Crumbl cookies for dessert.  To keep everyone going there were blood bag style energy drinks.  I had to call the party a bit short for our group because I had to work early in the morning.  I'm glad I got to go as Ryan's and Shane's plus ones.

And Back We Go!!

  Shane's car was technically ready on Friday, but he and Ryan had plans later that day, so getting the car was put off until Saturday.  It was a late night for some of us, but we managed to make it to the train station right as they were boarding.  We all got hotdogs and chewy marshmallow treats on the train.

  We passed through Ashland again, so I saw Center of the Yarniverse once more.  Last time they were closed at least, this time it just wasn't an easy option.  Bill would also argue that I don't need more yarn.

  We stopped back at CookOut and HobbyTown.  It was like we were finally getting last week right and going home in the car we arrived in.

  Once we were home we had to get ready for the show.  I was back lights again and Shane got notified earlier in the day that he was going to be Brad.  It was a bit of a tighter timeline than we usually use to get ready, but not so much we had to rush.  The laryngitis part of my cold had kicked in at that point.  I said I wasn't going to do any callbacks, but I did some anyway.  On the way out of the theater I was figuring out how to lock the one tricky side door and Shane tried to close the other door on my arm, which broke my Fitbit band a little.  Seems he is not having the best month.

What a Weekend

   On Friday a bunch of us headed to Maryland to help Bloody Mayhem Theatrical with an outdoor showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Before the show even started the wind picked up and the inflatable screen tried to make a break for it.  I ended up holding the transducer screen because it was acting like a sail and was also trying to fall over or make a break for it.  It was still a lot of fun though.

  On Saturday it was time to head south for Chris and Victoria's bachelor and bachelorette party.  On the way we got to see the tour bus for Yoko Says No.  I am going to look into their music at some point.

  Victoria was still at work, so Chris offered to show us some fun places.  We stopped by Rest in Pieces, and Ryan got a new friend (a cow skull now named Mootilda) and I got some bug keychains.  It was way too easy to find things you wanted, and I could see myself spending too much money on things to decorate the house with.  After that, it was about dinner time, so we met Victoria at Les Crepes Carytown where I got a very dirty chai and chicken crepe.

  On the way to the haunted house we got 7 people into Shane's 5 seater car.  It was a bit wild, but makes sense for us.  I was really excited since Victoria was telling us about how good of a place it was.

  It was such an impressive haunted house event.  There were so many rooms with so many big props and various things going on.  In the tunnel there was a guy behind me egging me on saying things like "Why you walking so slow? Are you dizzy? Why are you walking like that?"  He was my favorite part and pretty helpful.  I don't think I paid enough to get into it.  If you are in the area go to Red Vein, we already have plans to go again next year since we hear the theme changes. 

  On the way out of the parking lot Shane tried to take a shortcut and drove into a drainage ditch.  It ended up dislodging the coolant tube from the engine, cracked a corner of his radiator, and some of the radiator support is missing.  It meant that we had to leave the car with Chris and Victoria until it could be picked up and taken to a repair shop.  We got to go home in a rented Nissan Versa SV, at least it's a pretty blue color.

  We had to stop at Cookout for lunch, Ryan had never been, and Shane is trying to get all of us hooked.  I saw the sign for Hobby Town and Shane got really excited.  To help us digest we wondered around the store and all ended up spending some money.  I got a really cute stuffed cat by Tasty Peach Studios and a tiny tape measurer that I'll be adding to my knitting bag.

  On our way home we saw a florist, Thompson's Westwood Florist, where their electric sign said, "How mad is she?" which was pretty funny.  The ride back went well even if Shane got impatient at times during the trip.  I had a lot of fun; it was great to hang out with Chris and Victoria outside of Rocky.  I hope they manage to move back up and be closer to us.

I Don't Know How Either

   It's been a bit since I've gone out to just knit and sip on a warm beverage.  It was a rainy day, so it seemed like a good day to start again.  I got a lot of that worked on during the drive back from Kentucky.  I've already changed the pattern some so that I like how the stitches lay a bit better.  I'm not sure how I'm going to get it tested since the Ravelry group I usually use seems to not exist anymore.

  While I was knitting, Ryan was having an interview and got a promotion at work.  It's really exciting and we celebrated.  During his interview their nitro pot exploded a little and there was a "fun" coffee fountain.

  To keep the celebration going we went to a concert.  We are going to ignore the fact that we planned on going to the concert before the interview even happened.  I most likely would have never really gotten into iDKHOW on my own, but I do like their music.  I just tend to either listen to the same few CDs or true crime/paranormal podcasts.

  Since we didn't feel the need to get close to the stage, we stopped off at The Silver String for a drink before we went to The Fillmore.  When we first got there, Savannah Conley was still playing.  The opener we had gone to see was Joywave.  I was surprised that I had heard some of their songs before.  iDKHOW was a lot of fun, even though I kept getting distracted during the concert.  I feel bad for that part.  I would go to one of either Joywave's or iDKHOW's concerts again.