Wool 'n won't

A few days ago, back when I was feeling well (more on that later), I washed fleece.  I had this gorgeous fleece--waiting to be washed-- from my friend Gerry's farm sitting in my basement since June. The professor bought it for me as an anniversary gift!

It is a Romney/Texel fleece, and according to her notes, 8.5lbs before washing.  It was pretty clean, but even so, it took many trips up and down the basement stairs to wash it.  I had to use the washing machine as a set tub, divide the fleece in half, each 'half' had one hot water wash and 2 rinses, AND because our hot water heater is not set to "very hot", I boiled water in my electric kettle (upstairs) to raise the temperature of the soak water.

(A note on childproofing: our hot water heater can't be really cranked up because the water can't be so hot as to burn twins' fingers.  Perhaps with one kid at a time, you can monitor whether or not they've turned on the hot water by accident, but with two?

Better safe than sorry...  our house is full of gates, latches, and other minor adult inconveniences which keep our offspring from killing themselves or others.)
---PS: The professor also fixed our 100 year old laundry chute as another anniversary gift.  It is bliss to be able to pitch down the dirty sheets, etc. to the basement from the second and third floor.  Yet, in another note on childproofing?  It is a secret amongst adults here.  The boys do not know it exists. SHHH!  We do not want anyone throwing toys or brothers down this chute....

The fleece is gorgeous and these basement snapshots do not do it justice.

Plus, taking a day to submerge my hands in fleece was really therapeutic.

In the midst of all this, my CBC piece on how Manitobans can pull together to welcome Syrian refugees came out.  

--Another Note: Please don't click on this if  you have small kids around or if you haven't already seen some of the graphic refugee images in the news.  I didn't choose the photos, and these were upsetting so that I had to hide the iPad from my kids when I saw the article online.

Despite the overwhelmingly negative comments on the article page, I got a lot of positive feedback as well from other sources, so I am glad it got published.

In a rare confluence of fiber/knitting and social justice, Ram Wools, one of our local yarn shops, is cooperating in the 1000 stitches for Syria campaign.  I discovered this group on Ravelry and wanted to participate.  Basically, since Canada is welcoming lots of refugees here during the winter time, knitters are trying to work together to provide each newcomer with a handknit woolly item--a hat, mitts, scarf, etc. to help make it through the cold here.  I was also thrilled to see the effort written up on the local CBC Manitoba website.

Now on to the "won't" part of my post.  A week or two ago, the professor and a house guest of ours both had bad colds/viruses.  We tried to take good care of them and I thought we would either be lucky (hah) or it would only be a matter of time until the rest of us got sick.  The professor got better, the house guest went home, and bingo!  The virus didn't want to leave.  On Sunday, we were at home nearly all day with two under-the-weather four year olds.

On Monday, one kid was well enough to go to preschool.  I spent both Monday and Tuesday on the couch with the other kid, watching WAY more Sesame Street and Sid the Science Kid than I'd prefer.  Now, the kid version of this seems to include sniffles, a cough, usual cold thing.  I have a virus too, but mine is world's worst fatigue, achey, hurt, sore feeling all over.

(Hint: It was so bad that I couldn't cook at all so gave everybody hot dogs, baked beans, and leftover brown rice for dinner on Monday.  The boys liked it anyhow.)   It was also so bad that any big ten years of blogging celebration has been scuttled.  Pffft.  Just like that. I'm sad about that, but seem to lack the get up and go to try to make a fuss.

Have you been reading this blog for ten years?  more? less? If so, say hi!?


It is now Wednesday, both boys are back at school.  Not all better, but getting better, and missing friends and school activities.  I, however, feel so limp, tired, and hurty that I am wary of attempting much.    I did gather this bag of three clean and new/nearly new knitted items and a whole lot of wool or wool blend yarn for others to knit up.  I want to bring it to the yarn shop to donate.  My stash is so deep that collecting this only took about five minutes, and I don't  feel I will miss any of it!  (wow.  That is saying something....)  I am even giving away some gorgeous lite-lopi (I love that yarn) in an electric blue that I just cannot see anybody being willing to wear.  It's a very 80s color.


OK, I'm off to do some more groaning on the couch.  At least it is quiet today, and I have the couch to myself.  I'm trying to transport myself back to that fleece washing day, where the wool locks felt amazing and I too felt strong and able....oh well.

Denise 2 Go giveaway

Remember!

In October, I am having an UNsale.  The UN (and many others) have asked us to step up to help the millions of refugees fleeing war right now.  If you buy any of my patterns or my eBook in October, I will donate 20% of the proceeds to the Canadian Red Cross Refugee Crisis Appeal.  The Canadian government is matching these donations...so it will double our efforts to help.  Thank you for helping me to help others!

---
Now, on to our exciting giveaway...

A while back, I was contacted by a kind person at Yarncanada.ca.  I was asked if I wanted to do a review of these new Denise 2 Go Knitting and Crochet sets.  I said yes. :)

Why?  I travelled all over the U.S., in Canada, and abroad with my handy dandy Original Denise Needle kit.  It has served me really well!  What do I think about it?  On a brief pro/con list...

There are many pros...and this new travel set is even better.
1) It's small . It fits neatly in a suitcase.  This new set is even smaller in size than the original, because it divides up the sizes.  The giveaway here is for the bigger needles, US sizes 10.5 through 15.  (Perfect for knitting several of my designs, including ones like Knitting for Mother Earth Cowl or Slippy the Cowl, on the go.)

2) It is flexible and you can knit on several projects at once, whatever comes up when you happen by a yarn store... with these needles.  The new soft packaging also includes a crochet hook, which is very handy for any last minute cast-on or finishing needs.

3) The colors are bright and cheerful.  You can see the needles as you knit.  This is no small thing.  Very good.

What's not perfect about these needles?
1) The plastic is a bit sticky with some yarns.  This is great for a beginner, it helps the stitches stay put.  It can be a bit slow for some fibers when an accomplished knitter is zooming along.  (I always ignored this issue, because honestly, if you have the right needle on a trip, who cares if it is a little slow.  Slow is better than nothing!)

2) If your knitting style involves some wrist movement, as mine does, it seems to eventually put some wear into the cord attachment.  In my case, one of the cords seems to like to detach sometimes now--after many years of use.  (I also do this to other kinds of circulars, so it is not unique to the Denise needles)  Solutions?  Buy a new cord. :)  Other solutions?  Change your technique...that's for me to work on in the future...

3) Last comment...sometimes, you might have two projects that need the same cord or same needle at once.  Again, you can buy extras and replacements.  This is maybe just the problem for people like me, who do several projects at once.  I've got a lot of needles though, and I'd suggest buying more if this is your issue, too. :)  I can never have too many #6(4mm) circulars, for some reason, and I need about 4 sets of #3(3.25mm) double points, but whatever, everybody is different.  This is why there are so many gorgeous needle sets!

I've decided to do a giveaway of these needles--to pass the joy along.  If you'd like a chance to win these, please leave a comment on this post
by noon CT, October 21st,
that allows me to contact you via email, Ravelry, or your blog (whatever works for you, but it has to work for me too!).

In the ideal world, please also consider buying a pattern to support the UNsale, telling your knitting friends about the UNsale, or making a donation this month to support refugees.  Winter is coming, and there are so many people who have lost everything...right down to their winter clothes and their knitting needles.

Thank you.