anniecoleman.com

Some evil spammy thing wormed its way into my website and seriously messed up my blog.  All of my pages are GONE.  Podcast page, Pride and Prejudice page, Huck Finn page, Poetry Page, About Me page, all gone.  I was unable to post or edit anything until I finally got in the WordPress support forums and found this thread which contained the problem and solution.  Many thanks to those people more tech-headed than I am who figured this out.  Problem fixed, WordPress upgraded, plenty of stuff wiped out but for the most part the blog itself is fine so that’s a relief.  My theme and all the modifications I had made to it got wiped out in the upgrade but I don’t mind, it’s kind of like the chance to try out a new look.  So I’ll probably be fussing with it for a bit until I settle on the theme I like best.  In the meantime, bear with me as I rebuild the lost pages of audio files and put everything back together again!

P.S. Wedding pics and Anne of Green Gables coming soon.

ETA: Yea, my pages weren’t wiped out, they were just mysteriously transformed into posts!  They’re back as they should be now.

It often surprises me to realize who visits my blog and how they know me through what I write (and knit!). Last night at our rehearsal dinner, Stephen’s uncle Eddie mentioned in a toast that even though he’d only met be briefly last summer, he felt like he’d gotten to know me by reading my blog!

Yup, that’s right, today’s the day! I decided that I’m taking it easy this morning and early afternoon. It’s a matter of pacing myself for all the events this afternoon and evening. So in light of the blog being sadly negelected lately and the realization that more people than I knew have been following it, I figured it is time for an update.

I finished my Queen Coriolis socks:

The yarn is Opal Rainforest in the “Schmetterling” or butterfly colorway. The pattern is the Coriolis sock from Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I love how this pattern looks but it was difficult to get the fit just right. The nature of the band traveling across the ankle tends to reduce the elasticity of the sock right at the spot where it needs to be plenty elastic. But, I got it figured out and I’m excited to try some different “sockitechtures” she has suggested!

Oh, by the way, there were at least two other knitters present at the rehearsal dinner last night! My Aunt Beth from Arkansas finished a pair of socks on the drive up here. And Kurt, a longtime family friends who is now a judge and will be performing the ceremony, was most recently knitting on a sweater for his youngest daughter. Yea knitters!

I finished Julia’s Bobbley Scarf a while back! Remember the Bobbley Hat?

Well, this scarf is the hat’s companion. It is very looooong. It’s bit less cabley but still very bobbley.  This was one of those zen projects that once I memorized the pattern, I could just go and go and go. The yarn for the hat and scarf was Knit Picks Wool of the Andes - a great sturdy worsted wool yarn.

I also made the Frock Camisole by Katie Himmelberg from the Spring Interweave Knits for Julia for her birthday:

This yarn is Berocco Comfort which is good for gift knitting since its safe to go through the wash but I probably wouldn’t pick it for myself, I’ve gotten so used to natural fibers now that knitting with a nylon/acrylic blend felt weird on my hands. I don’t know if that makes sense but I suspect other knitters will understand! But the blue is lovely and the style is very flattering on Julia.

I made some cute cotton coasters a couple months back for my Aunts Lorie and Libby who threw my wedding shower:

As usual, Peaches and Creme worsted weight cotton. I’m told they are very absorbent! There have also been yet more Ballband Dishcloths for my fauncy aunt Becky and cousin Amy, also in Peaches and Creme:

It’s amazing what a hit these simple dishrags are, they are perfect gift knitting in my mind. I’ve also done plenty of knitting for myself. For instance, my Pretty Pink Picot Pullover:

The yarn is Dream in Color’s Classy and the colorway is Petal Shower. I used my Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd and did the set in sleeve with V neck template. I knit this up in no time at all. I loooove it.

Of course I was only able to wear it a few times before it got too warm but I’m already looking forward to wearing it next fall and winter. Click and zoom in to see the neckline better, it’s a twisted rib collar.

Okay, time to get moving here but it feels good to get a bit caught up in blogland! I know I’ve neglected Anne of Green Gables lately but once I’m back from the honeymoon (few days at a B&B) it should be done soon.

It is finished! This was a major project, Stephen wanted a heavy duty jacket type sweater and that’s what he got. So, here is the basic template, a fleece zip up that Stephen liked in terms of its basic shape and style:

He decided he wanted it in black Alpaca yarn and super thick. I ended up knitting with Misti Alpaca’s Worsted Weight with two strands held together. Stephen is thrilled with it and can’t believe how warm and heavy it is. I’m pleased with how it turned out, it looks so nice and professional! Unless of course you look at the inside where I sewed in the lining by hand:

I’ll get a sewing machine eventually but in the meantime this got the job done. I decided to line it because the alpaca is so fuzzy and sheds so much. Plus I figure that the lining will help the knit fabric keep its shape over time. Those are pockets sewn into the lining by the way. I’ve never really learned how to sew so I was just winging it with all the finishing details. For the pockets I left parts of the sides unseamed and sewed them in there.

I used Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns and the set-in sleeve cardigan numbers for the pattern. I did K3, P3 ribbing at the hems.  The collar is double thick. I knit up a bunch of rows, then purled a turning row, and knit the same number of rows then sewed it down. It stands up nicely which was one of Stephen’s requests:

This thing was a whole lot of work but in the end, Stephen got exactly what he wanted and I think putting in the time to get it just right is the best kind of gift I can give.

So there have been plenty of projects that have been finished and not blogged about through the holiday and wedding planning craziness. So today it’s time to catch up! Dishcloths are great gifts and they’ve become my standard gift for my fancy aunts. The Fancy Aunts are a group of my aunts and older female cousins who get together every couple of months to celebrate the birthdays that fall around that date. Dishcloths are great for Fancy Aunts because they are cute but also practical. I love the patterns in Mason-Dixon Knitting. I’ve now made two sets of three like this:

One set was for Mema and one was for my Aunt Didi. I think I’ve come to prefer the simpler pattern though. Three of these went to my Aunt Lorie and three to my Aunt Nancy:

Next time around I got a bit more adventurous with the colors and I love how they turned out. Here are three for my Aunt Margaret and three for my Aunt Libby:

Libby informed me that her almost-four-year old, Jack, loves the dishcloths and has claimed them for his own! And I quote from our family website:

“Jack’s favorite present of mine by far is the washcloths Annie made for me. He LOVES them. He took them over immediately. He hides under them and thinks we can’t find him, hops from one to another on the floor, and plays with them a lot. I keep putting them away and he finds them again. They are quite a hit.”

This cracked me up! As a reminder the dishcloth yarn is all Peaches and Creme Worsted.

For Stephen’s son Jeffrey’s birthday, I made him fingerless gloves.  Both the pattern and the yarn are from Knit Picks.  Here are the Men’s Convertible Mittens, made with Swish Superwash in Dark Navy, with the top down:

And top up:

Great pattern and a quick knit. Unfortunately Jeffrey apparently thinks that 1) Mittens are uncool 2) Fingerless gloves are uncool and 3) the blue is not dark enough. Therefore, these were firmly rejected, lol! Maybe the fact that Stephen thought they were so great and suggested them should have clued me in to the fact that his 14 year old son would think otherwise. No sweat, Stephen can have these and now I know what Jeff wants!

As a treat to myself for the holidays, I got some Hand Maiden’s Mini Maiden yarn in Ruby.  Mini Maiden is half wool and half silk which I’ve found to be such a nice mix, it’s got shine, it’s got stretch, it’s great!  I decided to make myself some nice gloves so I used the Basic Glove pattern from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns.  My red silky wool gloves:

I forgot to take a picture before I’d worn them quite a bit so you can see that with wear they’ve started to pill a bit but I still think they’re gorgeous.  The color in the first picture is more accurate but in this next one you can see that they fit like, well, gloves!

I finished my Peach Cabletini socks awhile ago and I guess I never took a picture of the finished pair so here is just one:

These are the Cabletini Toe-Up Socks by Wendy Johnson and I think it’s a gorgeous pattern! The tiny cables are so pretty and the ribbing makes them nice and snug.  The yarn is Dream in Color’s Smooshy in Giant Peach.  Here is a picture up close:

It’s not often that I knit a project from start to finish without touching anything else. It’s also not often that I get some yarn and immediately wind it and start knitting. This was bought with a Christmas gift certificate for The Loopy Ewe and I was so in love with the colors and how quickly it knit up that I just kept going and hence the Four Day Socks. Beautiful.

The yarn is Schaefer Yarns’ Lola which is a light worsted weight.  Their colorways are one of a kind but The Loopy Ewe gives them names and this is Grapes on the Vine.  This is a basic sock, knit from the toe up with Judy’s Magic Cast On and a short row heel.  Here are the gorgeous colors up close:

So I think that’s almost all of the finished objects I hadn’t already blogged about.  I finished Stephen’s sweater this past weekend which was a major project and deserves a post unto itself!  That’ll be coming soon.

Earlier this week, just before bed I remember noticing that the dishwasher was making a really odd noise but didn’t think much of it. Then last night I woke up in the middle of the night and could have sworn I heard something but immediately fell back asleep and forgot it. Until this afternoon when I most definitely heard something in the kitchen. I was trying to decide how to go about trapping a mouse when to my surprise, I found this:

A little brown bat.  He wasn’t in the tupperware when I found him, he was actually trying to climb up the kitchen wall. I quickly helped him into the tupperware and set the lid on loosely so I could look at him. He went in easily but he let his displeasure be known by opening his mouth wide, baring his pointy, tiny teeth, and hissing. At least I think he hissed. He definitely made a sound although I don’t remember exactly what it sounded like. I do remember quite clearly that I found it rather humorous that he was hissing (or something) at me considering his state. For one thing, he was tiny. For another, he looked oddly wet:

I was worried that maybe he’d been stuck down in the sink or dishwasher but I quickly realized that made no sense because he was obviously still alive (hence the hissing). He quickly settled down and appeared to be napping so I grabbed my camera and took these shots. I don’t think I’ve ever been this close to a bat before and I thought what I could see of his wings and the little talon-like things at the joints were pretty cool.

Considering the vigorous hissing I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt so I took him outside and set the container down and took the lid off. He didn’t move. It was unseasonably warm and sunny today so I thought maybe he didn’t like all the light so I put him in a bit of shade under a bush but he still didn’t move. So I brought him back inside and got on the internet.

I found the website for the Wildlife Center of Missouri and gave them a call. The woman I talked to was extremely helpful. She said that if he wasn’t bleeding and didn’t have an obviously broken wing then he probably wasn’t injured. She said he was probably coming out of his hibernation* and would be somewhat disoriented and weak. She said he also wouldn’t want to fly until it was darker out and to put him in a slighly elevated place. She explained that bats need to take off from a bit of height because they swoop down before they start flapping. I asked her about the wetness and she said that they are very vigorous groomers and that was probably all it was. She said that if he still hadn’t left by the morning to call them back.

So, armed with my new bat knowledge, I returned to my little brown bat. By then I had him in a cardboard box with some loose plastic wrap over the top (with air holes of course). He was sleeping peacefully so I decided to let him nap a while until it got a bit darker outside. About an hour later I went to check on him and he’d moved around a bit. He was dried off and fluffing up nicely.

He was awake and seemed to know that dusk was approaching. I took him outside and took off the plastic wrap. He chilled out and let me take a few more pictures.

Yeah the guano is icky but if you can look past that, he’s really pretty darned cute in my opinion. The pointy ears, the little nose, the fluffy fur:

And the wings are just so fascinating.  I settled his box into the top of a bush and sat down with a book on the porch. He really was a tiny thing, no more than 3 inches long.

About ten minutes later, with really no warning, I saw him swoop up, circle around a bit, then fly away. Fly away, little brown bat! Sounds like a children’s book or something, doesn’t it? I came inside and looked up Missouri bats.  I’m pretty sure that my guy was Myotis lucifugus, which I was delighted to learn is commonly known as the “Little Brown Bat.”  So that was my adventure this Friday afternoon!

*No, I really don’t want to think about the fact that he has likely been hibernating in our kitchen all winter long.