Numerology Class

This weeks New Jobless rates are out .... They ain't pretty!
@@@@@@
UP
417,000
NEW Jobless claims
(yes this includes those who went back to work for the 3 or 6 months that it took to requalify)
@@@@@
12,000 higher than hoped for
@@@@@
Above 400,000
154 out of 162 weeks
@@@@@
7.3 million Americans are collecting unemployment now
(the stat is very "American" specific, so I'm thinking there may be non-citizens collecting unemployment as well .... That would interesting to see)
@@@@@
The CBO expects unemployment to stay at over 8% for another 3 years ... Or about midway thru the next term ...
Under-Bush the unemployment rate was around 5%
@@@@@
13.9 million
Unemployed in July 2011
@@@@@
6.2 million
Unemployed for 6 months or more
UP
130%
from Jan 2009
@@@@@
They expect this number to rise considerably if hurricane Irene makes landfall
@@@@@
Labor Department says that the newest rise was because of claims made by striking Verizon workers
@@@@@
Continuing benefits
DOWN 80,000
3.64 million
For week ending aug 13
@@@@@
Economists saying economy stopped in mid-July (no growth/no fall)
{###}{###}{###}{###}{###}
I'm wondering how these new rates/numbers are split across the nation ... I mean is NY and CA skewing these numbers? Does there seem to be one or two particular events that caused it to rise so drastically (as hurricane Katrina did)?

Or is it the horrid economy of CA that seems to be effecting it ... Well ok, not all of CAbut certainly L.A. County which seems to skew the CA numbers - I know they take most of the benefit/entitlement money for the state even though they are one of the lowest earning regions of the state (and not just because so many people are getting federal monies)

The head of the Labor dept. says the worst is still ahead ... So at what point are they going to stop blaming Bush for this? A what point are they going to look at this situation and wonder how anything can get fixed if the president refuses to stay in DC to fix it?

I know that Obama is saying he would like to see some sort of national jobs program ... does this man have any original ideas? I can see this going one of two ways:
1. A CCC or WMP program where the government pays an inordinate number of people to do "make work" ... Hopefully necessary work ... Work that won't give priority to union workers - as so many government jobs do these days.
2. Assigned workers ... Where like the soviet union of old, they will tell people where the jobs are, how many are needed, and where they belong. That lack of freedom of choice,

I can also see a trend where if you are a stay-at-home mom ... A single income family .... You will be SCREWED over when it comes to benefits and old-age ... As the Tea-Party candidates go to the other extreme and pull everything away.

Oops ... I have strayed off point again haven't I?

I think that's the clue to stop now

Oh my Stars

blesings, blessings, blessings ....

hey its better swearing than S.O.B. - only I don't usually abbr. it.

I haven't moved everything from my summer 'take it's (usually baggies) to their winter spot (usually just a single giant baggie) -- and the little ones had fun on my side of the bed where I tend to park everything because I like to knit in bed ... sorry, tmi.

But the kids also use my side of the bed to put anything they want me to look at - so it has bits of stuff from school .... hubby likes to put mail that he doesn't want to lose on my side as well (usually tucked between my craft boxes) .... and if when the kids want to cuddle they get in on dad's side but scoot out mom's side - don't ask me why ...

any ways, inevitably what ends up happening is my semi-organized area gets bumped/knocked/ or otherwise abused and stuff starts to collect on the floor ... and since I learned a long time ago to pick and chose my battles, esp when it comes to the kids, all I ask is if they knock something down to pick it up.

Well this morning I had to kind of eat my own words....

last night I was working on a special project for my two partners (one for HSS4 and the other for ACX), they are a great idea and they fit both themes so I had to start making two -- no I'm not quite done with the socks yet .... I'm dreading taking out the toe sections ... but I've got at least a couple ideas as to how to fix them - one of which is just to crochet the toe sections..but I'm sliding here aren't I?

So I was working on the specials and I had dropped some stuff while reaching for a different sized crochet hook ... only hint ... well I could have swore I picked it all up ... wouldn't you know it? I missed one baggie that fell --

I found it this morning ... with my foot.

I was in a hurry and heard that sickening crack under my foot ... thought it was my wooden cable needles -- I hate that sound ... its one of the reasons wood needles aren't my favorites ... but I would never turn them away esp the larger ones (hint hint).

Well - there was nothing I could do ... I had lost track of time and had to go outside with the youngest to wait for her bus -- its raining this morning and it is still dark as night out there ... we have coyotes in the area but where she waits at the end of the drive is just outside the dog's collar's range ... I'm sure the dog would endure the shocks to guard the girl but why risk it when I can stand out there and make sure it doesn't happen.

so I checked and sure enough I had knocked down some paper work last night as well that I wasn't aware of and it had covered a baggie which must have gotten knocked down during the football game - I may have done that too without realizing it --

On one hand I'm happy it wasn't my wooden needles that broke ...
on the other hand I'm pretty pissed at myself ... another knit gauge gone -- only this time it was my favorite and practically new KnitPicks one! Snap the corner right off -- right thru the second size 2 hole!

I'm so sad right now. I would love to say 'its a good thing their cheap' .... but I'm not sure I want to put a bunch of money on the card to order a new one (always order min for free shipping :-) ... I've already ordered a bunch of stuff getting readying for late fall/winter.

QVC owns my butt right now ... oh and Herrschners too.

Oh well - will have to complain later ... got too much to finish.

still have to figure out how to do Indiana Jones w/o the leather jacket ... and one Wonder Woman outfit w/o being too 'busty' for the youngest ... and how to keep oldest girl from stealing my new witches hat (it has feathers, veil and purple spider on it ... very cute).

well ... first I get my exchange obligations out of the way - they are due first.
then costumes.
then Yule
then I can deal with credit cards
then I can look into getting a new knit gauge, if I decide I really need one. I mean its still functional ... I just won't be able to use it to size a few needles. I'll probably tape it together for now. wonder if I've got some super glue ....

"See first that the design is wise and just: that ascertained, pursue it resolutely; do not for one repulse forego the purpose that you resolved to effect." William Shakespeare

Okay so I have been working on my partners socks .... I'm about 95% finished. And I have noticed that I have stretched out stitches in a couple of areas -- not really holes just stretched stitch loops that can be easily fixed but at the moment look really nasty.

I think I know exactly what the problem is and I can more than likely avoid it during the last 5% ... but it will mean some stitch tightening and possible duplicate stitching to pull those last bits together - I was planning on doing a bit of dup anyways just to make sure nothing popped of during wear&tear anyways, but it was going to be an extra special thing out of politness rather than necessity.

now I'm getting nervous that my partner won't like her socks.

I've got new photos of when they were about 82% done ... but they show too much of the final design and I'm kind of leary to post because my partner might see them before I get them in the mail.

I keep thinking - 'if I got these, would I like them?' - I always answer yes ... but then I wonder if I'm not just being biased. My girls are going gaa gaa over them ... so that's a good sign. My youngest wants me to make a pair for her in Ravenclaw colors - my Gryffindor daughter (the 16 yr old) wants me to make her a full set of socks, hat, scarf & mitten. right, I'll get right on that -- as soon as you clean your room.

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and ask myself why I didn't just revert back to my roots and crochet the last 10% ... I would have been so done by now. Actually I've never crocheted a sock before, it would be interesting.

Knitting Update

Yes I actually do post about knitting/crafting on this post once in a while ... I have been working on my socks this weekend, working on the instep area.

My problem is that it seems as if I will not get the stretch that I want in that general area with the pattern I'm using ... and if I lossen it up I'm afraid that I will have gapping holes in that area ...

the other color changes have been fairly minor only occuring at the beginning of the rows ... but this one is different.

oh well -- I will write my partner and get the measurement of her instep and see if I will need to increase for that area ... that could be the problem too but normally socks have just enough stretch to make it.

Paperwork

aw man - I can not believe the amount of 'paperwork' there is for the exchange. now there is a database we have to keep to show how many times we have written on the blogs - apparently we are also supposed to be commenting on our partner's blogs ... only my partner hasn't really written any blogs that I can really comment on.

I read on the group list that someone is actually finished with her package - not just the socks, the entire package - and is mailing it out in the morning. Geez. I don't know.

I'm starting to worry if I bit off more than I can chew here.

On the bright side -- my partner just wrote that the yarn for my socks just arrived .... I am so hoping she is a very slow knitter ... I'm going to need the full time to work on her socks.

New pattern. New technique. New foot size - partner & me aren't the same size this time.

It is all going to add up.

I'm worried.

If that owl got lost I'm gonna cook it

Still no word from my HSS partner as to whether she has gotten her socks. To me this means that either (a)she's out of town (b)they didn't show up (c)something has happened to her or (d) she really hates them and doesn't know how to tell me.

I'm hoping its (a) and not (c), hopefully not (b) or (d). If they are lost and I don't know about it I'm afraid it will be too late to get a tracer on the package now...they were delivered over 2 weeks ago. If she hates them....well I can live with that.

I know that I'm not the best sock maker...and I had a lot of problems with them...and I ended them unconventionally.

I just want to know that they arrived safely.

I guess I have to go back to my cushion of needles to sit on.

Banging my Head against the Wall now

UUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!! I'm so frustrated....can you tell?

I didn't get a chance to go to the coffee shop with the other Scout Mom's this weekend as I had hoped because it was cancelled due to lack of interest. If hubby hadn't answered the phone I would have pretended that everything was honky doory and talked the oldest daughter, gimpy and all, to come with me and we could have spent the entire time knitting and talking and sipping coffee and tea--she says they have tea, it would have only been my second time there and the first time I got away without ordering anything---but no, hubby answered and I didn't think fast enough on my toes.....so I didn't get any knitting done yesterday.

Instead I spent the afternoon cleaning the kitchen....especially the stovetop. This is the first summer that my oldest has been on his own while we went out of town--his favorite thing to do was use the deep fryer (and leave me the mess)....because I hate the dripping of the oil I have it on a sheet pan that's lined with foil for easy cleanup.

As it turned out 18 yr olds have no sense of oil life---I thought he had changed the oil at least once over the summer--he hadn't. Oil in a fryer, I'm told, needs to be changed at least every 3 months depending what you've cook in it...if you've done any sort of meat it needs to be changed sooner. Anyways, I never really thought much of the stove--I don't usually use it....I either use the oven (they are seperate units) or the microwave, the stove is mostly used when I want popcorn or fried eggs.....mostly its just the place I put the cookie sheets or roaster when they come out of the oven.

So I had been keeping the top of the burner cleaned up okay....but when I pulled out the burner trays to clean---OMGs---he must have spilled the fryer or something and wiped it up without thinking of cleaning under the spill-pan. I had sticky "dried" oil all underneath the dials, under the dial plate and the rubber gasket that holds the plate in place. He had switched the burner grate with the one from the other side knowing that I tend to put the big tea kettle & the Splatter Blue camper coffee pot there so you can't see it.....gaaaawwwwwkkkkkk. And only one single--just one--S.O.S. pad left to do it.....it died after I finished both drip pans, the dials, the dial plate, the gasket, the stove top, one grate....but it didn't make it thru the really ucky one.

I could have killed him, but you know he's a kid (at least to me) so I turned on the football game in the kitchen and started cleaning it up---everytime our team made a TD he'd say "did you see that?" or "Look at that, that's amazing" and I'd answer with "I didn't see anything, I'm too busy cleaning someone else's mess" or "no I was busy scrubbing this ____".....I think he got the point though because one time when our team made a TD he used it as an excuse to give me a great big hug....he NEVER hugs--"I love you" gets answered with "yup" or "huh?".

So I will have to wait until the next time I can talk hubby into taking me to the regular store to get some more and really pound it....MIL says she used to put them in a black plastic bag with a bottles worth of amonia, tie it shut and then put the whole thing out on the front lawn in the bright sun and it would just eat off the grease. It might be worth the try--except I have a hard enough time not getting sick from the smell of Moth balls, I can't imagine what the smell of amonia would do to me.

Anyhow, back to my knitting.

As it turns out not knitting yesterday would probably have been a good thing---because I got done with the first part of the second socks ribbing and found that --shit!--the guage is off again! I measured really carefully too--but the sock was WAY too big....I hadn't noticed it while knitting because I tend to keep the stitches bunched so quick work, but damn!

So now I've had to frog and now its back to the drawing board....so I like the simplicity of the pattern but the colorworks is driving me nuts....it is not working out the way I thought it would. One row one color, one row the next....no pooling!

{sigh} well I've got to get back to the needles---I have to get these to my partner by Halloween and hubby is taking three days off this week so I don't think there will be much knitthing going on then. He seems to get jealous of it....what he doesn't realize is that there are days that my crafting is the only thing that keeps me from-=-=-=-sending him back to work!!!

Wondering if I should begin to worry

Okay so I wrote my partner over a week ago asking about a particular measurement and haven't heard "jack" back from her...my understanding is that I'm her partner and she's mine (they changed it from the first swap). I have tried posting to her blog site too thinking maybe she checks in there but there wasn't and reply there either.

I'm a tad worried that I won't be able to make her socks the right size if I don't get the measurement...it sounds like she has rather thick ankles with the measurement she gave me, but I need to know for sure...otherwise the ankles could end up as much as 2" too small around her ankles and no one would want to wear those.

And considering that this is the most expensive yarn I've ever bought I want them so totally wearable! I've decided to go with just a simple knit/purl pattern so that I don't lose the imagaes in the color change...the colorways of the yarn just will not work the way I'd like...I was hoping that they would have a few rounds of solid color before changing, but so far they are working up one row per color then it switches.

I'm still working on the cuff so I'm hoping that she writes back soon....I'm hoping she checks in on my blog the way I check on hers....maybe she'll see this post and write.

Wait, who am I kidding....I will blog on top of it and it will be buried.

Jimmy Bean Wool Update

Okay when it comes to online businesses I think one of the biggest pluses is customer service, in fact in the online world of commerce it is probably the one thing that will make or break a company. I just had my first experience with Jimmy Beans customer service (the place I ordered the corn yarn from).

I got a very nice and to the point letter from them stating that 2 of the items I ordered were delayed...one by 2-3 weeks and the other by only 5 days.

Now the one that is 2-3 weeks delayed is actually the one I am hoping to make my partner's socks with for the Hogwarts sock swap....and the company made it very clear on their website that only a limited amount of each color is produced and once sold out-its gone, no more....EVER! So while this has me worried, I knew the deal when I went in.

The second is the a-Maizing yarn (the letter gave me the proper spelling of the name) which I ordered in "Ducky"....it looks like a nice mellow, soft, almost baby yellow. I was surprised that I was told of its delay at all being it was only going to be 5 days late.

Most companies online would have sat on the info, especially since I was a new customer, and just shipped it when it came in.

I like this!! What I liked even more was the fact that Jimmy Beans gave me a CHOICE as to what to do....did I wish to have them wait and ship all at once, or split it up into smaller shipments at NO EXTRA CHARGE!!! WOW! As you can tell that means a lot to me as well.

I love a company who thinks along the same lines that I do...if the delay in shipping isn't thru any fault on the customers service why should they be penalized. I have ordered from a couple of other places online who had no troubles saying that they would charge extra if I chose to have them ship in parts.

Not that shipping costs is that big a deal with Jimmy Beans--they charge $4 shipping for packages ranging from $0-74.99, and at $75 shipping becomes free, for an extra $1.30 you can get "signature varification" which means you have to sign for it (so you can hide the package if its close to hubby coming home). My standard yarn orders are about $50 in product but shipping is usually around another $10-12, so this was a treat. It felt like the first time I had a Drumstick ice cream cone as a kid and found the cone was lined with chocolate as well!

I will keep everyone updated on the situation as it goes along. I would suspect that the first part of my order will be getting off this week, but then I wouldn't be surprised if it got off on Monday instead being I got my reply back to them so late in the day today.

So far, things are looking very shiny for this online store!!

UPDATE 7:14pm CT:
I heard back from Jimmy Beans...they sent out my order TONIGHT. They emailed me all the tracking info, plus a little explaination as to how it all works and why tracking info may not show up right away on the USPS site. I really like this!
They told me exactly how much they were charging to my cr.card for this shipment and restated which items will ship later (always nice to have reiterated)

They also included a list of current sales (50% off) although the month said "July" when its August I would think they will honor the sale price. And an invite to review the products for other crafters...most sites just put a clicker on their page but don't say anything about it...so it was nice to be asked to do it.

Storms

Well, we did our rain dance last week at the cabin and I guess it worked in spades!

We got 2 1/2" of rain Saturday, and now we got another 1 1/2" last night with high winds. It blew open the secured front door and I had to actually lock it to keep it closed.

Saturday's storm sent a lovely Maple branch towards the front windows but luckily it just slid down them instead of coming thru the glass. Last night's storm has put another good sized branch across my front sidewalk so no one can come to the front door...well that's one way to keep the Fuller brush man away.

Our garden had tomatoes all over it from Saturday's storm which we had to pick up, but my daughter checked it out today and said the zucchini and canteloupes have been taken for a ride this time.

Sure.....where wa all this rain two months ago when the corn needed it??? Or even a month ago when the cobs were forming? The corn crop is a total wash....we can't even sell the stalks for Halloween decorations they are so puny (only about 3- 3 1/2ft tall) and sun-bleached.

Very disappointing year for the farm. We won't even qualify for the Federal Disaster loans the government is offering farmers because our farm isn't "big" enough...by farmland standards we are a "hobby" farm...but this money is where the kids field trips and school activity fees come from. We were hoping to help the eldest son with his first year's book at College this year but now it is going to be tight.

Between gas prices, food prices (milk is almost $4/gal where we go, and that the cheapest place), new clothes for the kids, shoes, first semester tuition for the oldest, and having to pay the district so our daughter can get a bus to school money is going to be tight this year.

We won't even make back the $ we put out for the seed this year.

Don't worry though, we will muddle thru....aw heck we will be okay...we are doing better then some in the area...and we are doing better than the farmers who rely almost solely on their crops for income, they really do deserve the loan money.

Remember Farm-Aid? That musical concert that began in the 80's by the likes of Willie Nelson? Whatever happened to that? Is that still going on?

Or did the farmer's get left behind again?

Wheew!!

I will have to remember that! If you ever need to delete a posting, go to "Dashboard" click the posts button for the blog in question then simply tell it to delete the entry!

I can not believe I accidentally "blog this"ed to the Swap group....how embarrassing. I'm just glad that I am anal-retentive enough to have wanted to see how it looked to use the Blog This button.

Couldn't find it on this blog but sure as stinky-stuff there it was on the group blog big as life spouting my political views for EVERYONE to see.

Well I think next time I save the BlogThis button for when I only have ONE of the blogs opened--sure wish there had been something on the BlogThis pop-up though that would have told me which blog it was being sent to!

Kids and Knitting do NOT mix

I love my kids, I really do.

I was in the bedroom (where the HD tv is) and I was working on my current sock...see previous photos...when the phone rang and I put down my work. I had just gotten to the heel flap so had switched from my size 2 dpn's to my size 1 circs, figured I would make life easy on myself and if I put the work down for a long period of time I could slip the stitches down onto the cable. Good Idea, right?

I'm not used to working with circs....I only got them because I was going to try making socks using the Magic Loop system but couldn't figure it out...so there they were laying on the bed.....next to my 11 yr old son....who was watching television with me....apparently he is not the fan of the news because as soon as I got into the quick conversation on the phone he decided to get off the bed....the call lasted all of 50 seconds....literally, if even that long.

Son and I passed each other thru the door...when there on the floor lay...you guessed it---the circs....no sock....just the circs!

I had cataract surgery about 4 years ago, at age 38, so my eyesight is not the best but even I could see I had a BIG problem on my hands.

So I popped on my magnifying glasses over my regular glasses (it makes my entire lens the same prescrib as my bi-focals) and proceded to slip as many of the loops back onto the circ without loosing them....this is not easy for anyone, but try to do it while fighting the urge to find the kid that did it (I know it was my fault for not sliding down those stitches)

{sighs} so I get all the stitches on, give it a gentle tug just to make sure...a run is easy to fix at this point, but {wiping sweat from brow} luckily I didn't have any runs--all the stitches were saved. Right??

WRONG! I started to do the next knit row. It was great the first half of the heel flap==not a problem EVERY single stitch was twisted correctly and right where it belonged, but once I passed the marker that's when the problems began.

1. most of the stitches are actually the ones from the previous row, or a mix of the previous row stitch and the present row stitch.
2.still hadn't dropped any rows, no runs...well that's good news at least...but I have stitches where I caught PART of them...which means I have split the yarn...which weakens it. On the heel this is not a good thing, in fact its a very, very bad thing.
3. hubby came home and now I haven't had time to straighten out the mess....only reason I'm writing this blog now is because I'm waiting for my stroganoff to meld together (keyboards are easier to clean than knitting while its on the needles).

So now I am sitting here dreading having to get out the crochet hook and redoing 15 stitches so that I am catching all the yarn fibers that should be there----and seperate the previous row from the current one.

You know the devil on my shoulder is saying "just stitch it the way it is, no one will notice the heel"....but I just can't do that....{sigh}

On the bright side I told my daughter, they are her socks, what had happened and that I would have to fix her heel and she said "on my leg or on the sock?" Maybe she knew I could have used that good chuckle about then.

Still Waiting....

Okay so I am really trying to keep myself busy waiting for a "yea" or "nay" from the sock swap....I've given hair cuts to son and hubby....I've fed the gargoyles....I even worked on my sock yesterday (some concerns here)...but this is really testing my will power not to send off yet ANOTHER plea to be let in.....how UNslytherin of me, if I give in I would suspect the others will really trounse me!

About my sock...

Well I noticed after I put up the photos of it that I was getting some pretty funky pooling of color suddenly. I rechecked my gauge, nope it was still the same....8sts/inch, 9rows/inch....so the color should have been the same. Then it dawned on me that what it could be is the dying sequence had changed....hmmm, why would they do that?

Because that was were/when they expected me to be at the HEEL...instead of the decrease of the calf! So now I had this really nice wide striping going on with a big muck of muddiness...but really that's not my issue with it...it doesn't look the best but I can live with it (so can my daughter for that matter)....by issue is:
what if there isn't enough to finish the foot!!!

I mean think of it....I could be most of the way done with the foot and suddenly run out! That would be disastrous because I only have 2 skeins of this yarn....the last two herrschner's had...and buying a new skein risks mismatching dye lots (even though bernat is usually really good about it, I ain't pushing it). I even thought of using a second yarn for the heel and toe decrease, but then I thought....well if there IS enough yarn I would have a bit left over from each ball and then I have to worry about matching the striping and working in ends on the other sock. yada, yada, yada.

That is the one thing I do NOT like about the Arachne sock calculator....it doesn't give you approximate yardage needed. I don't know why it couldn't....I mean its a simple mathematical equation...

(#of sts needed to complete) X (# of yds needed to make gauge swatch of specific portions)=yds needed

OR

(#of rows) X (yardage in 10 rows)=approximate yardage needed

since the calculator asks you to enter in your gauge anyways, all it would need to know is the international size of the yarn to give the best estimate of yardage (1-5, based on thickness).

I suppose I could figure it out on my own too, but it would be easier if I had one of those cool tools that you just pull the yarn thru and it tell you the yardage you have....that would really be SWEET for something like this.

Just think all I would have to do is make swatches for every size of yarn with all my different needles and then measure it out...viola! Instant yardage chart! But that seems like just too much work for this time of the morning.

Besides, it won't help with the problem I have now....although the number of yardage/sts. would be the best way to handle the decreases and increases....AHHHHGGG! Now that will be stuck in my head and rattling around all day.

But then.....it might be better than obsessing over the Sock Swap!