Although I cannot promise more frequent postings, I am hoping that I will be able to post when I want to.
http://whitedoyle.wordpress.com/
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Friday, March 07, 2008
FO--MDK Felted Boxes
I finally finished the felted boxes from Mason Dixon Knitting that I started in October. I wanted to do this project because you had to pick up stitches and I needed to know how to do that for Jack's blue hoody and I didn't want to practice on it. I figured if it looked horrible it would be obscured when it got felted. I had 2 of the 3 knit for a while but was having trouble finishing the 3rd. I buckled down and finished them up yesterday and immediately started the felting process. I had never felted anything before, but it was quite easy. It did smell like wet dog !!
I used Lion brand wool from Michael's held double on US#10's.
One is the before shot and one is the after shot. The boxes became a bit more sturdy after the felting. The stitches are quite fuzzy now which is good. I will probably do the small or medium size again, the larger one is just too floppy still.
Confirmation
Gordon was confirmed at the end of last month. Kevin's folks and his brother made the drive over from St.Louis and stayed the night. Coincidentaly my mother was in town for a few days, so we had quite a full house.
Our good friend Jim E. served as Gordy's sponser and Kevin was sponser to Jim's son, Kirby. There is also a snap in cluding Archbishop Nauman and one with Fr. John. 
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
FO Socks
Not too bad for a first attempt. They are way too big. I think I had a gauge accident. I did the swatch on flat and did the socks on double pointed needles. I am a loose knitter on dpns.
They might fit Kevin a bit better. I will see after they get washed. If you are larger than a men's 7.5 or a women's 9.5 these might be the socks for you! Someone out there has feet they will fit.
I am not letting this little set back hold me back. I have two other pairs in the works--ADD anyone? I really like the socks yarns out there and I can wear a pair of socks that are wild and colorful whereas I most likely wouldn't with a sweater.
These were knit using the patter from Ann Budd's Getting Started Knitting Socks using US#4 dpns. The yarn is Trekking XXL color 100, 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon. I have quite a bit of the 459 yards left over. The yarn was interesting. I don't think it would have been possible to create an exact match. I never did see a pattern repeat. I made the knitting go quicker seeing what new color combination came next. Fraternal twin socks.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Civic Duty
Kevin and I stood outside in the sleeting rain to get inside the Democratic caucus site last night. They underestimated the turn out at 2 of the 3 Lawrence locations. At ours they had to go to a second location a block and a half away. Obama won our dual ocation with about 73% of the vote. There was some question as to whether or not Hillary would even be a viable candidate. Really interesting and exciting in an odd kind of way.
I have never in my voting years had to wait in line for more that 4 or 5 people. Maybe my polling places just weren't that busy, but it kind of neat and very cold to wait that long. I don't remember this much excitment ever.
I don't know if Obama can pull off the nomination, but either way it looks like the Democratic Party will do something historic this fall.
I have never in my voting years had to wait in line for more that 4 or 5 people. Maybe my polling places just weren't that busy, but it kind of neat and very cold to wait that long. I don't remember this much excitment ever.
I don't know if Obama can pull off the nomination, but either way it looks like the Democratic Party will do something historic this fall.
Friday, January 18, 2008
How did we do in 2007?
Last year around this time I made a commitments to reducing our energy and water consumption, buying at least 10% of our food from local sources and getting out of debt.
I am happy to report that we spent the 10% on local foods. Buying the side of locally grown grassfed beef really helped. While Kevin worked for the city we were able to purchase local eggs. There are also many products such as salsa and tortillas--mainstays in our diet--that are produced in Kansas city. Milk is purchased at least 50% of the time in glass bottles from Iwig dairy. The skim milk really does taste better. The garden helped quite a bit also. I still have peppers, tomatoes, green beans, butternut squash, and broccoli to use. For 2008 we will attempt to increase this to 30-40% of the grocery bill and increase the home grown foods. I will need to figure out some more food storage.
Interms of energy usage around the house we were less successful. Overall natural gas usage actually went up by 14%. I am really not sure how. Right now I am participating in the Freeze Yer Buns Challenge put on by Crunchy Chicken. We have the house set at 65 during the day (with a brief warming period during the showertime morning hours) and 55 at night. Most days this is perfectly fine. It is damn cold today however. We have a gas light in front of the house--I bet that sucks some gas and we still need a blanket for the hot water heater. But really other that keeping the thermostat low we haven't really tried. So I guess you reap what you sow.
Water was about the same as last year. The big difference was that we used more water this summer. Taking out the two months of highest usage for both years we used 10,000 gallons less. So I think that the overall water usage is going to be hard to reduce if we are trying to incease the gardening. Jack is down to diapers only at night, so that eliminates 1-2 loads of laundry per week. That is bound to help in the long run. Now if we could just get hime to turn the water all the way off after he washes his hands we might be in business.
Electricity is our lone highlight. This went down 23%. This is almost solely due to hanging the laundry for the warmer months and keeping the AC off until the 4th of July. We have also replaced most of our incandecent bulbs with CFL's. The only place this is not working well is in our bedroom and in Jack & Erin's. There are can light that take fllod light like bulbs. They take a bit of time to come on all the way and the one in our room in on a dimmer and it hums. The kids light was being left on all the time, so that one is certainly going to stay. We are going to have to decide about the one in our room. I think the CFL's make a difference because the KWH/day number is down 5-10 KWH/day for October, November, and December. I was using the dryer both years, so the general usage would be the same. The other thing we are doing that helps is keeping the DVD player and CD player on their own power strip which we only turn on when we use them. That eliminate the continual pull. The TV channels have to be reprogrammed everytime the power goes out--I eliminate the crap I don't want to see for surfing purposes. A new refrigerator and washer and dryer are on our list of items to purchase this year. The frige came with the house and is at least 12 years old. More efficient appliances are out there at a reasonable price. The washer and dryer are not that old--5 years? The washer has been a lemon I think. We have replaced the pump twice in the last 2 years and it is making a really funny sound. I think just a bad seed. The newer fancy washers spin more water out of the clothes so that they take less time to dry(in the machine or on the line). With the amount of laundry produced in this house I gotta believe there will be some savings in the long run there.
We are screwed on gasoline because Kevin is commuting to Overland Park again. Eventually he will drive something that gets excellent gas milage, but the trusty old Saturn is not too shappy. ( An aside--that has been the most reliable car. We just put new tires on it. Kevin noticed that they were beyond bald when he had it up to replace the starter--he did it himself! But really other than the starter and some body work due to Kevin's mishaps all we have done is basic maintenance on that car. We will keep it as long as it runs. Emily wants to learn to drive a stick and we will teach Gordy also, then maybe just replace the clutch so it doesn't go out on us.)
Getting out of debt. This one was tough with Kevin's employment issues. Happily the position he is in now pays overtime and he has been working his tail off. We finished 2007 without acquiring any new debt, a small emergency fund, and with the ability to pay off the 2nd mortgage in 3-4 years assuming he continues to earn at this rate. Starting 2008 with out being in the hole is just totally unfamiliar territory. Welcome territory.
I am happy to report that we spent the 10% on local foods. Buying the side of locally grown grassfed beef really helped. While Kevin worked for the city we were able to purchase local eggs. There are also many products such as salsa and tortillas--mainstays in our diet--that are produced in Kansas city. Milk is purchased at least 50% of the time in glass bottles from Iwig dairy. The skim milk really does taste better. The garden helped quite a bit also. I still have peppers, tomatoes, green beans, butternut squash, and broccoli to use. For 2008 we will attempt to increase this to 30-40% of the grocery bill and increase the home grown foods. I will need to figure out some more food storage.
Interms of energy usage around the house we were less successful. Overall natural gas usage actually went up by 14%. I am really not sure how. Right now I am participating in the Freeze Yer Buns Challenge put on by Crunchy Chicken. We have the house set at 65 during the day (with a brief warming period during the showertime morning hours) and 55 at night. Most days this is perfectly fine. It is damn cold today however. We have a gas light in front of the house--I bet that sucks some gas and we still need a blanket for the hot water heater. But really other that keeping the thermostat low we haven't really tried. So I guess you reap what you sow.
Water was about the same as last year. The big difference was that we used more water this summer. Taking out the two months of highest usage for both years we used 10,000 gallons less. So I think that the overall water usage is going to be hard to reduce if we are trying to incease the gardening. Jack is down to diapers only at night, so that eliminates 1-2 loads of laundry per week. That is bound to help in the long run. Now if we could just get hime to turn the water all the way off after he washes his hands we might be in business.
Electricity is our lone highlight. This went down 23%. This is almost solely due to hanging the laundry for the warmer months and keeping the AC off until the 4th of July. We have also replaced most of our incandecent bulbs with CFL's. The only place this is not working well is in our bedroom and in Jack & Erin's. There are can light that take fllod light like bulbs. They take a bit of time to come on all the way and the one in our room in on a dimmer and it hums. The kids light was being left on all the time, so that one is certainly going to stay. We are going to have to decide about the one in our room. I think the CFL's make a difference because the KWH/day number is down 5-10 KWH/day for October, November, and December. I was using the dryer both years, so the general usage would be the same. The other thing we are doing that helps is keeping the DVD player and CD player on their own power strip which we only turn on when we use them. That eliminate the continual pull. The TV channels have to be reprogrammed everytime the power goes out--I eliminate the crap I don't want to see for surfing purposes. A new refrigerator and washer and dryer are on our list of items to purchase this year. The frige came with the house and is at least 12 years old. More efficient appliances are out there at a reasonable price. The washer and dryer are not that old--5 years? The washer has been a lemon I think. We have replaced the pump twice in the last 2 years and it is making a really funny sound. I think just a bad seed. The newer fancy washers spin more water out of the clothes so that they take less time to dry(in the machine or on the line). With the amount of laundry produced in this house I gotta believe there will be some savings in the long run there.
We are screwed on gasoline because Kevin is commuting to Overland Park again. Eventually he will drive something that gets excellent gas milage, but the trusty old Saturn is not too shappy. ( An aside--that has been the most reliable car. We just put new tires on it. Kevin noticed that they were beyond bald when he had it up to replace the starter--he did it himself! But really other than the starter and some body work due to Kevin's mishaps all we have done is basic maintenance on that car. We will keep it as long as it runs. Emily wants to learn to drive a stick and we will teach Gordy also, then maybe just replace the clutch so it doesn't go out on us.)
Getting out of debt. This one was tough with Kevin's employment issues. Happily the position he is in now pays overtime and he has been working his tail off. We finished 2007 without acquiring any new debt, a small emergency fund, and with the ability to pay off the 2nd mortgage in 3-4 years assuming he continues to earn at this rate. Starting 2008 with out being in the hole is just totally unfamiliar territory. Welcome territory.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Tinkertoy Swift
I bought a bunch of Yarn at the after Christmas sale at Yarn Barn. Since it was a sale day and they were packed they were not winding the yarn into those nice little yarn cakes. Most of what I bought was in the twisted skeins which are impossible to knit with unless you enjoy untangling yarn vomit. I decided not to spend the $150 on a swift and yarn winder. Instead I bought Erin and Jack (and Gordy) some tinkertoys.
On the swift is one of the nine skeins for a sweater for me. Ball winding goes relatively quickly with this wheel Gordy set up for me. No, this is not an original thought. I saw this on the internet and thought it was a great idea. I showed Gordy the site and he set to work. What a guy.
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