Knittin' and Lovin' It

Meandering, Babbling and General Craziness

Sounds like the title of a good book. It would definitely work as a great title for my memoirs. Note to self, must add that to my bucket list. I think I could sell all of maybe 5 books if I published it. Naw, scratch that my life has been rather boring and uneventful, well to me it hasn't been boring but to the everyday Joe my life would be rather dull so maybe unpublished memoirs would be the way to go for me.

Shawn's retirement is now official and he should be seeing his official orders here soon. Hard to believe it's all done in 226 days. He's started the job hunt and we've had a few nibbles but nothing to write home about. There are a handful more that would be great but now it's a frickin waiting game. We've start checklists and have a million and one things that need to be done. We're doing a partial move so that we have our clothing, beds, etc. The stuff we can't live without while we're living with my sister since we don't know for sure how long it will be before we get out own place. Uncle Sam will pay to move the rest and for a year of storage for our household goods so that gives us time to either buy a place or find a house to rent. My sister and I spent 3 hours on the phone talking about the move and getting all excited about us coming home.

I had a mini freak out moment when we signed the lease. I might also want to add that I was already upset because I found out my great uncle had passed away. Our base housing is going through the privatization process so we had to sign a lease with the company that's taking over and I started reading their stupid little booklet on responsibilities and such because I'm smart like that and I want to know what is going on before names are signed willy nilly. I get to the carpet replacement price and see that it starts at $1400 and goes up in price and my little mind starts chanting "oh shit oh shit oh shit". I have dogs, birds and kids plus my carpet has seen two other families besides mine so it's looking shabby and crappy. It's cheap carpet and even cheaper padding, Uncle Sammy only pays for the best for his military troops (must insert a lot of sarcasm here). Then I hit the next part that starts talking about how you have to pay to have your carpets professionally cleaned when you have pets in the house when you move out. Now I'm chanting "oh shit, oh crap, wtf are they "F"-in crazy" because it would cost in upwards of $700 to professionally clean the carpets in my house from top to  bottom. My house is frick huge and I live in a two story house. I have 14 stairs and it would cost me an additional $3 per stair....the prices are damn crazy if you ask me!!! Note to self, no I repeat no carpet in my house when we buy one!!! My mind was so not G rated that day. So I'm ranting and pissed and complaining about how in the hell they expect military people (who don't make that great of a paycheck to begin with) to pay for this crap. So of course I pissed Shawn off because apparently I'm not suppose to be pissed about having to come up with $700 we weren't counting on for the move. It's not as if the uHaul (they want over $900 for one of their crappy frickin vehicles) and house cleaning fees weren't bad enough. So Shawn's nonchalant, don't worry be happy, can't change it so why get pissed attitude pissed me off even more. His comment was like oh well guess we're going to have to use the income tax refund to pay for it. Nevermind that our income tax refund was for paying off some damn bills we really need to pay off. If I would have had a frying pan I may very well have walloped him on the head with it. Apparently he's not been paying attention over the last 13+ years of marriage that I need to rant and bitch which needs no response from him at all. It's not as if I was doing it standing there in a public place (something I would never do) we were in the car/at home. Anyways back to my freak out, all is well that ends well, after a nice chat with the military housing office and the new civilian company taking over, we are not responsible for the carpet at all because it's already past its 7 year life cycle. It's the original carpet that was put in the houses when they were built like 10 years ago so all we have to do is vacuum because they're ripping it out. So I guess Shawn's don't worry attitude would have been better but I vented my stress and anger so at least I know I won't explode now. When I internalize stress it never ends well.

Anyways on to knitting and other fun stuff.

I received my TLE #9 swap in the mail today.

 

I love everything! I got stitch markers, hot cocoa, chocolate coffee, hot tamales, a lovely pair of socks made with Hazel Knits artisian sock yarn, Koigu Kersti, BFL/Seacell fiber, and an emergency fix key chain.

My It's a Wrap mini kit from Woolgirl.

 

I test knit this a while back and I've been patiently waiting to post about it. I'm co-hosting a KAL with the designer. I can't wait to get started on this. The yarn is Miss Babs Yowza worsted weight which I absolutely adore. The colorway is Tulipa which is a lovely deep purple.

I knit a Darkside Cowl (ravelry) for Bree.

Of course it's warmed back up and now she doesn't need it but it's ready for when the temps drop again. The yarn is the Premier yarns serenity sock yarn that I picked up on sale at JoAnn's. I held it double stranded and let me say that I think I'm going to knit more of these double stranded with sock yarn. I just need to add more stitches for myself and Kaity. This is a great pattern and double stranded with sock yarn makes it extra squishy and warm.

Yarn for a baby blanket for my cousin M.

She's due this summer with her second child. I need to check with my aunt to see when little dude is due to join this world. The yarn is Knit Picks Comfy Worsted and the colorway is called Macaw which this does remind me of the green on some of the Macaws. Cousin M already has a blue baby blanket so I figured I'd change it up a bit and use a non standard baby color.

Finally I finished the first part of my 2012 Quarter one challenge from TLE.

The pattern is Malabrigo Silky Merino and the pattern is Princess Mitts (Ravelry)(non Ravelry) from The Knitter's Book of Yarn. It's also a free pattern. I think it was one of those patterns that Potters Craft released as a teaser for the release of the book. The pattern had a error in the thumb chart but by the time I noticed it it was too late and I was too lazy to rip and reknit. The error wasn't that big of a deal for me. Note to self, check for errata before starting to knit, bone head!!

I'll leave you with a shot of George and Bill hanging out and getting to know each other over pop corn.

 Bill is on the left and George is on the right pigging out on the popcorn. Bill and George will be getting separate big cages not because they don't get along because they're not to bad together it's because George absolutely hates Shawn and Shawn's afraid George is going to hurt himself if Shawn puts his hand in the cage to get Bill. George freaked out when Shawn uncovered him this morning and ended up rubbing his wing so hard it bled. So each birdie will be getting their own big, sturdy cage and Shawn will ignore George from here on out. I'm aggravated with the both of them.

Till next time......Happy Crafting!

Retirement Time!!!

Shawn submitted for approval to retire. Shawn hit 19 years of active duty Air Force service on 7 Dec 2012 so he submitted his eligibility check for retirement earlier this week. We're done and ready to move on with our lives. It's time to take control of our life back from the military. I can't begin to explain how much stress was relieved with that decision. So barring any unforseen issues we will heading back to Boise, ID on or around 5 Sept 2012. I can't believe we're down to the last 8 months. We were originally going to drop retirement papers in Sep/Oct of this year so we could move during the summer of 2013 but the AF dropped High Year Tenure (HYT) for Technical Sergeant (TSgt) from 22 years to 20 years which meant it was up in the air on if they would extend Shawn's time out from April of 2012 to Sept 2012. If they refused to extend him out it would have meant a move in the middle of Dec or Jan for us, something neither of us want to be doing so we decided to take the money and run.

Uncle Sammy and his cronies are really screwing with the lives of military members right now. You use to be able to retire from the Air Force as a Staff Sergeant (SSgt) with 20 years of military service. Now you can only do 15 years as a SSgt meaning you have to make TSgt to retire from the military. Add injury to insult that they also want to keep retiring military members from drawing their retirement pay right away. They want to make it to where we have to wait till we're 65. Screw that! The average american citizen doesn't have to pick up a gun and fight in a foriegn country to earn their retirement. They don't have to worry about if they are going to make it home safe and sound to their family. Just because you come home from a deployment without any external injuries doesn't mean you came home unharmed. PTSD is a very common and very serious problem. I can't tell you how many people I've personally seen flinch or flat out drop to the floor when they hear a car backfire, fireworks and other loud noises that sound like gunfire after spending time deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. I wonder how many military members wake up in the middle of the night to some nightmare of what they saw over there? Until ALL of Congress puts on full battle rattle (military protective gear), picks up an assult rifle, kisses their family goodbye, gets on a plane and spends 12-16 months away from their loved ones to stand on the front lines worrying about getting their asses shot off, not knowing who is the enemy and who needs help, they don't have the right to the decision to take away our armed services ability to draw our retirement until we're 65. There are only a few current members of congress who know what it's like to go to war. I know Sentors John McCain and Jim Webb both served in Vietnam. There are also a few that were cops so they know what it's like to put their butts on the line every day but the bulk majority of them have never went to war and have never even served in the armed forces so how can they make such important decisions about the military when they haven't walked a mile or two in our shoes. 

My sister and I are so excited about the move. She's in Boise and I can't wait to get home. I desperately miss my best friend and shopping buddy not to meantion my most trusted babysitter for the girls. I miss my family and this move will put me closer to them again.

Yes I know I know I'm rambling and I need to get to the knitting content. Lets me think for a moment....ah now I remember where I need to start my post.

I finished my Marilinda socks (ravelry)(non ravelry).

This is a CookieA pattern and can be bought as a seperate pattern or it's in the book Knit.Sock.Love which comes in a print or pdf version. The yarn is Wollmeise I picked up from a destash. The colorway is we're different Ruby Thursday. I love the red color but bought it more for the name since it has sentimental value to me. I love these socks. I'm only so so on the Wollmeise base. The base yarn is OK but her colors are what draw me in. There are indie dyers out there with much nicer base yarns in my opinion. Will I buy more Wollmeise? Yes I will but it will never be one of my favs. I'd love to get my hands on a skein of Wollmeise lace in the Ruby Thursday colorway for the next shawl I'm planning for my mom. I've seen a few being destashed but can't spend the money right now. With the move coming up the only way I could do it is someone was willing to trade and most people want to trade lace for lace. Oh well, maybe after we get settled after the move.

One of many candy cane ponies (ravelry)(non ravelry).

This is a quick and easy pattern. I really love these and have plans to make more this year for my cousins, nephews, my girls, and some other family members. I have wiggle eyes and ribbon for the next handful of ponies I plan to make.

I picked up some new to me sock yarn on sale at JoAnn's the other day.

The yarn is Premier Yarn Serenity sock weight yarn. It's a merino/bamboo/nylon sock yarn. It's übercheap. I think it was like $3.99 per 50 gram skein. JoAnn's was having a buy one get one 50% off so I figured why not. It's the cheapest sock yarn I've found so far.

Finally I picked up some Malabrigo Silky Merino for the 1st Quarter TLE challenge.

The challenge is to knit something with yarn that has silk content. I'm planning on making fingerless mitts and a new cowl for myself. 

Until next time......Happy Crafting!

It Just Dawned On Me!

I was sitting here at the computer and I had one of those little voice moments, you know the one where you here the little voice in your head say "dude.....".  Well my little voice said "Dude wonder how far you're going to be from the Canadian border?"  Over to mapquest I go....less then two hours people....guess I need to get a passport, which by the way isn't going to be cheap.  Wonder if I can convince the government to pay for the passports?  Naw, probably not but it was a cool thought while it lasted?  :~)   Shawn looked it up and I believe for all 4 of us to get passports it's going to run us about $350-400....maybe with income tax money.

Updates, Babbling and Such

Just wanted to let everyone know that I didn't blow away yesterday.  The wind blew through here really bad until between midnight & 1 am.  At least the windows didn't rattle all night.  Today is gorgeous and sunny if not very warm.  It's only about 36 but we have high hopes to hit 52 and the sun is shinning nice and bright.
Last night I frogged several UFO's and rewound the yarn.  I'll be starting them again but for now they were just in the way.  I frogged the baby hat because I need to start it over again making it a wee bit bigged.  I frogged the 7 rows I had on the Civil War Shawl.  I'll make that one later but right now life is just in the way.  I'll probably start that one again after we move and get settled in.  I also frogged Baby Peanuts blanket....who is now Baby Blake.  :~)  I wasn't quite happy with the gauge so I will try again on needles one size bigger.  I'll be starting that one again here in the next week or so.  But that blanket is going to be a super fast knit and I may have enough yarn to make a hat and dare I say it.....Booties.  I'll be looking for a cute double point pattern.  I'm  not really thrilled with making the two needle ones though the pattern my mom had me attempt made a really cute bootie.
Did I tell you all that we are now suppose to here about our assignment selection on 27 April.  *sigh*  The military can never make up their minds what they want to do.  :~)  So it looks like we won't have to wait until mid-May to find out now.  Lets hope what they are saying is true.