sitting by the fire & a KAL

If you've been reading my blog a while, you may remember our fireplace saga. Yesterday was the big day. The day where we got the new gas fireplaces installed. It was also the day I had a doctor's appointment (I'm fine, thanks) and the Professor's first class lecture, but we're talking about fireplaces here. This was, by the way, the third time these had been scheduled for installation. Something always happened. It rained. The crew couldn't make it. Whatever...we've been working on this for nearly a year, and the scaffolding for the chimney repair went up at the end of June, and finally--Houston, we have fireplaces that work!

(This first photo is of the professor's study...On the top shelf there are his diplomas. Below that? The dogs' obedience certificates...and below that, TA DA, a working gas fireplace.)

There are a couple of minor repairs still to be done. This rounded shape fireplace in our living room works just fine but leaves a couple of spaces where you can see the old fire box at the top left and right. We're having an additional piece of metal made to fit snugly around the outside of it. This is because I imagined having a preschool visitor (my nephew, perhaps?) pitch plastic action figures in those triangular, tiny holes and then tearing apart the fireplace or the house to retrieve them before they melted or caught on fire. Uh---No.
We're waiting for that, and then it will all be done. Hurray!

(In the living room photo here, you'll see the dog sculpture we have guarding the new fireplace. It keeps folks and dogs from backing into something hot and dangerous. Harry only tried to play with the dog sculpture once before he figured out it wasn't a real dog. Smart guy, huh?)

I am working away on this dusty rose rug. The good news? I have more than half done. The bad news? I ran out of wool dyed the right color. I dyed another pound of wool yesterday in the middle of the fireplace installation. The workers hardly noticed... really, the chaos was huge. It matches well enough so I bet you can't see where the old wool ended and the newly dyed stuff began. Sheer luck, that...

Now, about this KAL thing. That stands for Knit Along. No idea who thought of this abbreviation, which I always thought of as K.A.L. Then a knitter friend and a pastor's wife I knew in Kentucky said --with a big Southern accent, "I just can't keep up with all these Cals I'm doing!" (Did I mention her husband was named David?)

I nearly keeled over with the effort but I managed not to laugh. I knew there had to be some sort of misunderstanding on my part...after all, she did look stressed out and worried.

Yes, now where was I? I've never done one of these KAL things...never participated or run one. Don't even know how to say it, as a matter of fact! Some friends suggested I try it out, so in October, we're doing the Seiff Sock KAL over on Ravelry. There are 4 different patterns available for socks I've designed, and you can choose any of those to participate. If you're interested, hop on over there and join the fun!

Harry the dog has already taken up residence in an armchair, directly facing the new gas fireplace in the living room. He is ready for colder weather and serious winter sock knitting to commence!
I hope some of you will join us! (beside the fireplace or the KAL, either way...)

nearly one year

We have been in our house in Winnipeg almost a year. I can hardly believe it. I still feel like I'm brand new here--still learning new things every day. However, I am also seeing signs of home.

About the strawberries--the season has been pretty short. I never even made it out the 8 miles out of the city to do any picking. I didn't feel well and the season was very fast this year. I did buy some berries, and here is a shelf in my basement. New jam --about 7 cups--on the left. Last year's leftovers? On the right. (a true sign I've been here a year!)

We're also joining the Winnipeg masses in having something constantly under renovation. (Winnipeg has a lot of old houses...so we're not alone in this.) This is the scaffolding that has been up on my back deck since June 28th. Yes, that's our chimney, and it will now be shorter than before, with less of a chance of it falling down and killing someone on the street. Someday, we may even have it set up with the gas fireplaces that we found. (the British ones, designed for Victorian houses, that fit in our small fireplace openings...Hurray!)

Our Nanking Cherries are ripe, so I went on a picking spree this morning. There are still plenty to pick later. When I have time, I hope to put these up in jars as jelly or maybe cherry sauce. The container here holds 6 cups, and since each cherry has a big pit, it won't make a lot on its own. Still, I harvested these from our yard and I'm proud of the homegrown crop!

In between teaching classes at the university, editing, and getting ready for houseguest #7, things have been busy. (For those who have been reading the blog a long time, the Norwegian Bachelor Biologist is driving up from his family's Minnesota cottage and coming to town! I can't wait to see him!) So busy, in fact, that I have felt a bit under the weather. However, it was nothing a little bit of antibiotics couldn't fix.

Today, I celebrated the sunshine and our elms in their fancy summer leaf costume! The light dappled through those leaves and I took the dogs on a long walk. We went past the big houses, all the way to Munson Park by the river. It was a deliciously sunny day, with two happy dogs by side. It's good to be here. It's been quite a ride since last year, when we arrived in Manitoba on July 15th, 2009.

Now it's off to grade more papers...

the stats

This week:
We saw and entertained house guests #4, 5 and 6. It was a joy to see them, but a highlight was having our small friend here for a little while. You may recognize her from the Shearing Day chapter in my book Fiber Gathering: Knit, Crochet, Spin, and Dye More than 25 Projects Inspired by America's Festivals. She is now seven and a half years old. We made her a "nest" in my office with pillows, bedding, and a comforter for her to sleep on and then she rearranged everything. This was so she could sit on my office chair and read aloud to her "class." (The class consisted of various pillows, Pinky the stuffed bear, some dog toys that Harry and Sally loaned her, and other inanimate objects.) Apparently everyone in the class enjoyed story hour!

I also managed to grade 19 academic papers turned in by my Engineering graduate students this week. I'm teaching a writing course for graduate students in Engineering. That meant I had to read their work and make comments. I honestly cannot remember the last time I felt so intellectually stretched and stimulated...I learned about Civil Engineering, Bio-Medical Engineering, Electrical Engineering...whew! Probably the last time I had to learn so fast was in graduate school -- and I graduated from UNC in 2001. It's been a while.

Today is also the 12th anniversary of the day the professor and I got married. We don't tend to do much for our anniversary, which is lucky.... I just brought him to the airport as he is off to an academic conference on butterflies in Alberta. His fancy camera is being serviced so I loaned him mine--hence, no pictures here.

Also today, the scaffolding went up to fix our fireplace chimney so we can put in gas fireplaces someday. We also had yet another person rush indoors to see the inside and work up gas fireplace estimates. Cause, you know, we didn't have anything else going on. (I'd laugh here, since if I didn't, I might cry over the chaos of all this!)

Finally, you may remember the purple sweater project. Last night I got ready to integrate in one ball of yarn that came all the way from Tokyo to help me finish the sweater. Sadly, when I started work again on sleeve #2, I discovered that I'd made the cuff too short. So, I ripped out almost an entire sleeve so I could knit it properly. This sweater may be done in time for fall. At least, I hope so. It's a moving target, this sweater project.

So, that's:
+3 houseguests and then -3 house guests
+19 Engineering papers
+one dozen years of being married
-one professor (just for the week)
+one scaffolding
+one more gas fireplace estimate
-one knitted sweater sleeve
----------------------------
one busy and tired Joanne

the cold case of the fireplace

Once upon a time, some newcomers to Winipeg had a lovely old house, built in 1914. Said house needed a lot of tender loving care. It had some things that worked splendidly. It had some things that done broke a darn long time ago.

We have a chimney. It is your average chimney for our neighborhood. It has corbelling but not too much corbelling. (Yes, this was a word I've learned since moving here. It's in the dictionary...) It was built in a sturdy way, back in 1914. However, we now have a chimney where the bricks just rest gently on each other, touching intimately. No mortar between the bricks. At all.

This is complicated by the fact that we have these lovely original cast-iron coal burning inserts in the fireplaces. Two small fireplaces. Gorgeous. Limestone in the living room, and brick in the professor's study. Totally impractical for today's world. No, we do not burn coal. We do not burn anything, because if we did, we'd burn down the house...cause remember, no safe chimney, shallow fireplace, etc.

We've been doing research on how to fix all this. The options are ridiculously varied. Take down chimney. Rebuild chimney. Get a woodburning insert/woodstove/gas fireplace insert/gas logs/gas stove/etc. Put decorative flowers in there, put a note on the mantel that says NO FIRES and call it a day... All suggestions people have offered us.

Some things will not work. For instance, new gas fireplace inserts will not fit in our fireplaces, so we've had more than one person suggest they just cut up the masonry surrounds (from 1914) to make those new things fit. Does. Not. Sound. Safe....or historically respectful.

We've got lots of advice, including some from an architect (professor's father) and an engineer with experience in natural gas (my father) and several tradesmen in the area. However, neither father has ever been here, so I've put up these photos for them to see the fireplaces. Please, join in the fun! In my best case scenario, by next year this time, I'd still be admiring these cast iron coal inserts. I'd be sitting next to a gas fire. It would feel warming, and I could shut it off before going to bed. (a woman can dream, right?!)

Have I mentioned that all of the above options will cost something between $9,000 and 15,000 to come up with a solution? Oh, and that if we don't fix that dang chimney this spring, it's likely to just fall off the roof and kill a passerby in a stiff wind?!

Now, if the above scenario causes you hyperventilation problems like it bothers me (and believe me, this is just one of the interesting problems we've encountered this year, between new/old house, immigration, work, etc.), you might need to calm yourself. Quick. Look at this spindle. Breathe. Think peaceful thoughts.

The professor bought me this as a treat and it arrived yesterday. It's made of Walnut, 33grams, and it comes from this kind man:
Ray's Spindles
It doesn't replace the one I loved that snapped in my bags while travelling to write Fiber Gathering. However, it's a nice spindle, and if you look at that webpage? I have pretty much every variety of spindle he makes. I especially like the Turkish and Bedouin spindles. The kind that broke, a "hi-lo" spindle, is one I think he might no longer make. I do miss it.

I also have been weaving to "beat" the band. Or at least, beating the heck out of these roving rugs I've been learning to do. Here are a couple of pictures of my efforts. I've done 2 twill rugs, one plain and one striped. I've done 2 plain weave rugs, one plain and one striped. All the rugs are roughly 2 by 3 feet, with the striped plain weave one maybe a few inches longer. The wools used are Icelandic, Romney and Cotswold. The warp is cotton.

I haven't quite finished off these rugs yet, but well, warp #2 is off the loom and I'm fixing to start warp #3 with the start of the new month. As soon as I figure out how to use a warping board. See? I'm definitely learning something new at least every day. Good to keep the brain active. It sure does seem like a lot of work some days. Especially the hyperventilating while trying to make expensive house decisions part...