Boxes and More Boxes

Boxes, more boxes

Of papers and photographs.

Flawed memories.

KEB 1/3/17

For a year and a half all of the boxes of "stuff" that I brought home from my dad's house have been sitting in our guest room.  Well sitting may be too kind a word.  Crammed is more appropriate.  It is fair to say that anyone who ventured into that room would have needed a golden clew, like that of Ariadne, to make their way out of the labyrinth of boxes.  I don't think there was a minotaur in the midst of our guest room, but I couldn't be absolutely sure of that!  The primary reason that these boxes have remained untouched for so long is that I wasn't sure where we were going to go with all of their contents.  The other reason is that I despise clutter, particularly paper clutter, which is what a large portion of the boxes' contents.  Photos of family, some of whom I could identify and lots of others that I couldn't, newspaper clippings, my mother's scrapbooks from her childhood through the birth of her grandchildren, marriage licenses, baptismal certificates, and various other records.  Let's just say that there was a forest worth of paper.  The prospect of going through it all was terribly overwhelming to me.  So I ignored for awhile.

Back in the spring Weber and I decided that we would build an addition on to our home to accomodate the few pieces of furniture that I kept, as well as give us much needed storage space, and an extra bathroom for my sloppy Offspring that lives with us.  We worked on bringing this plan to fruition for about six months.  The hold up was finding a concrete company willing to take "the small job" of our little slab.  Both our contractor and Weber made call after call and no one had the time or resources to give to what we needed.  I took that as a sign that perhaps an addition was not the right decision for us. Right before Christmas we gave up on the idea.  That meant that I now had to face the mounds of boxes.  No more procrastination.

The problem with sorting all of the things from Delaware was that I still needed somewhere to go with it all once I unpacked it.  This meant that I needed to clean out virtually every closet in our house in order to free up any and every free inch of usable storage space.  I started this "project" on my birthday.  Though I dreaded it, taking that first step was really a gift to myself, because once I start something, I will not stop until I finish.  So, for a week now, the contents of not only the guest room, but every closet in the house have been pulled out, culled, reboxed, and much of it relocated.  Our contractor kindly came over and added some extra shelves in a bedroom closet and also hung a few of the pieces of art that we brought back.  

This process has been going on for a week.  We are not done, but we have made an amzing amount of progress.  Many things have been given away or thrown away.  Fortunately, I am willing to get rid of things.  I don't need or want every family picture that was ever taken.  I saved a few, but I most certainly tossed more than I kept.  Items that are staying have been organized and neatly stored in bins.  And by some miracle, we found a place for all of those bins, none of which ended up in the attic.  One of my weird little quirks is that I don't believe in putting stuff in the attic.  First of all, in Texas, that is a certain death sentence.  Second of all, I cleared out the attic at my parents house.  Most things that go to an attic are never seen again until the next generation is faced with figuring out what to do with them.  I don't want my girls to have to deal with all of this crap.  I didn't want me to have to deal with it, but I have to and I am happy to say that I have!

We are not completely done, but we are WAY closer to that goal than we were this time last week.  A few more things need to be donated.  Some of Weber's family items need to be mailed to other family members who will appreciate them a little more.  There is still art to be hung,  some that first needs to be reframed, but the to-do list is much shorter and much more bearable than it was a few days ago.

I cleaned out the last closet today, the one that was full of all of my kniting supplies.  I was a bit ruthless, but that's OK; it was all my stuff.  I had more unfinished projects than I care to admit.  I threw them all away with the exception of two or three.  (Forget what I said above about not stopping until I finish something. Apparently that does not apply to knitting!)  In my head, storing a bunch of unfinished projects created a feeling that my organizing and cleaning project was also unfinished.  Discarding the "UFO's" meant that everything was tidy and ready for a fresh start.

While I was sorting my yarn into tubs, Piper decided that she would check out the yarn for her next sweater.  She is the best dressed pup around!

A huge and long enduring burden has been lifted because of the work we have done in the past week. Like I said, there is still more to accomplish, but I now believe that we can do it.

I must also thank a friend who is coming to visit next week for the final nudge that I needed to get this all done.  I really want to see her and for that to happen we have to have a place for her to sleep other than the couch or an air mattress on the floor in the den!

I have had my moments of frustration and despair during all of this, but they have been fleeting.  I think that I can honestly say that 2017 is off to a fantastic start!

336/365-2 Warmth

"Scarf It Up!"

Nothing says warm and cozy better than a hand knit scarf and someone with whom to share it!

118/365-2 The Number Four

"Four Inches"

I had hoped that on our trip home from Delaware we would either depart or arrive at a gate with the number 4 in it or that our seats would be in a row with a 4.  No such luck.  

After I got myself squared away for school this week, I sought something for today's photo.  Fresh out of ideas and inspiration,  I was counting on the muse and the muse seemed to have already gone to sleep for the night.  With the plane trip still on my mind, I remembered the sock that I had started knitting as we took off from Philadelphia.  I wondered just how much I had knit on the cuff of that sock...

  Score! It was exactly four inches long!

By the time I took this shot, the muse had indeed gone to sleep.  That was OK because her work was done during the three and half hour flight home.

A few more flights like today and I have should have this sock done.  And, this is sock number TWO!

66/365-2 Frustrated

"O NO NOT A KNOT"

As of now I am officially on spring break so today has been a good day, nothing particularly frustrating at all. I almost feel guilty posting this picture as really the most frustrating event of the day was knots in my yarn. The truth is that I am quite patient with many mundane and tedious things, but untangling yarn is not one of them. This is a bad thing for someone who is an avid knitter! However, as is often the case with things that we don't like, there is a lesson to be learned. When I figure out exactly what these d&@* knots are meant to teach me, I'll pass it on:-)

50/365-2 Two

"Two Socks"

I hand knit most of our non-athletic socks.  The problem is that I often get bored after the first sock and the second one does not get knit in a timely manner.  Many people have received one sock and the promise of a second one "soon" as gifts.  Weber got sock number two of his 2012 birthday socks for Christmas in 2013.  Better late than never, right?  

I have vowed to do better this year.

So far, so good.  I started and finished this year's first pair in two weeks.  He got two socks, a whole pair, on Valentine's day!  

22/365-2 Eight

'Size 8"

I am short on time and inspiration today.  Since we seem to have no resident octopus, the best I could do in only few minutes this afternoon at photographing the number eight was a picture of the size 8 knitting needle I'm using in one of my current projects.  Lame, I know, but at least I took a photo.  

3.365 - 2 Winter Sports

"A Good Sport"

I had to deviate slightly from the daily prompt and go with an image of a good sport rather than a winter sport.  Texas is not a place that makes for fun winter sports.  Though we often get the cold, if it is accompanied by any precipitation at all, the result is usually a nasty ice storm rather than a beautiful soft snowfall.

My personal winter "sport" of choice is knitting, though I must admit that it has taken a backseat to photography lately.  However, I do want it noted, again, that Weber did get his second sock for Christmas!

I am lucky to have such a supportive better half for all of my hobbies and obsessions.  Not only is he always willing to help me out when I need a model for a daily prompt, he also is appreciative of all of his knitted gifts - even the ones that aren't socks!  

When you are a middle school teacher, you will do almost anything to engage the kids - including wearing a goofy hat on those cold wintry days when you have outside duty.  Such a hat gives you almost as much power as a superman cape when you spend your days surrounded by sixth, seventh and eighth graders!

Cheers to a good sport and an awesome husband!

333/365 Grateful for Legacy

"Buttons"

It's funny where the mind goes when you think of legacy.  My first thought was to cookbooks.  Though I don't have any of my mother's cookbooks, I do have some recipe cards that she made for me that are in her handwriting.  I also have Weber's mother's cookbook, the one with all of the handwritten favorites on scraps of paper and those recipes cut from packages, magazines and newspapers.  Every family has a cookbook like this.  They are treasures because family recipes shared at family meals are the backbone of most family memories.  Even though I believe all of this whole-heartedly,  I went a different direction with today's photo.

As a crafter, I also believe that many family traditions live on in those things made and crafts shared. As babies, my girls were wrapped in the same afghan that my grandmother knitted for me when I was born.  They also had one knitted by mother.  Should they have children of their own someday, another generation will share in this legacy.  We can learn so much about those who came before us by looking at the things they made.

The photo above is Weber's mother's sewing cabinet.  It was made by his grandfather for his grandmother.  Though Weber's mother died in 1980, the cabinet's content have remained almost untouched since then.  It still contains all of her sewing notions.  This is another way for me to learn something about a woman I never met.

By looking at the spools of thread I can tell something about her favorite colors, or at least the colors she liked to wear.  And the button drawer is fascinating.  It is full of leftover packaged buttons from things I assume she made.  There is also an assortment of buttons that look like they were removed from garments before they were discarded.  Then there are the extra buttons that come with store-bought clothing.  I had fun not too long ago digging through the drawer of buttons to find just the right ones for a baby sweater that I made.

My skills as a seamstress stopped with toddler sundresses.  (The clothes I make are only suitable for someone moving too quickly for anyone to notice the imperfections.)  So, I will never use the items in the sewing cabinet in the ways that they were once used.  I will, however, always look first to the button drawer when looking for just the right buttons for a knitted sweater.  And, the thread comes in handy when I have to sew on that occasional button.

I wonder if someone will dig through my yarn stash someday and try to figure out what kind of person I was.  There will be no question about my favorite color.  Hopefully I won't be the person who is remembered as the one who never seemed to finish anything!  Maybe I should leave just one sock unfinished to spur on the next generation of knitters.

320/365 Grateful for Color

"Colors in the Wind"

This is the status of my Christmas knitting.  It is probably in this particular state because I was taking pictures of the yarn rather than knitting with the yarn.  Apparently I have a problem with priorities.  But the colors sure are pretty all clumped together.  Maybe I can give 'Do-It-Yourself Hat, Scarf, Slipper  Kits"  to everyone.  

297/365 With Stripes

"Good for the Sole"

My funky striped hand-knit socks are the first things that come to my mind when I think about stripes.   I don't have much of a personal style except for my socks. They are like a smile on my feet.  How can you not be happy when you are wearing brightly colored hand-knit socks?   I am always surprised by the fact that my students notice my socks and ask about them.  Over the years, I have even made a pair of socks for a couple of them.  

It was kind of cool seeing them all together like this.  It is much more impressive than looking at them balled up in my sock basket.

The two socks in the middle are a public confession of sorts.  They are both for Weber and I have not managed to knit their mates (in two years) ….yet.  I have two months until Christmas.  He will be so surprised to find two pairs of socks amongst his Christmas gifts:-)

233/365 Spin

"A Swiftly Spinning Skein"

123/365 Orange

"A Few Of My Favorite Things"

Because orange is my favorite color, I had lots of possibilities for today's picture.  It was hard to decide which direction to go.  I finally decided to go with an image of several of my favorite things - the color orange, oranges and yarn with which to knit.

82/365 Texture

"Putting A Wrap On Spring"

Despite the fact that the calendar says that it is spring, it was a little chilly today.  That must be what caused an urge in me to start knitting a wrap; that, and I found a cool pattern and yarn for said pattern.  Also, I am still dealing with my weeklong cold.  Having a simple project to work on while I rest in the recliner and watch documentaries with Weber makes me feel at least a little bit productive.

24/365 Cold

"One Down, One To Go"

I would be lying if I said that I did not struggle with today's picture.  A prompt of "cold" when it was 78 degrees, three degrees shy of an all-time record high in Dallas today, is tough.  The best I could do was a shot of the socks that I am working on.  The first one is done; hopefully number two will be done before our next cold streak.  Weber will be happy to have two warm feet.  He is still giving me a hard time about a pair of socks I started for him a year ago that has not yet become a complete pair.

19/365 Bright

"Brightly Colored Socks"

I'm not sure that I had the right take on bright; I suspect that it was intended to have more to do with light than with color.  Oh well . . . Things don't get much brighter than these socks.  I hand-dyed the yarn and then knit the socks.  They are some of my favorites!

Obsessive Knitting

It's not Christmas or any one's birthday but I have spent a lot of time knitting over the last couple of weeks - at least a lot of time for me.  I don't have as much time to play with my sticks and string as I would like.  But as I said, over the last two weeks I have been knitting obsessively.  We've eaten out every breakfast, lunch and dinner for two weeks, worn the same pair of socks and underwear during  said time frame and the dogs have had to forage for food in the trash cans and litter box because my knitting and I could not be parted for trivial things like cooking, doing laundry and feeding the animals. 

 Just kidding.  It hasn't been quite that bad . . .but almost!

The strange thing is that this manic knitting has been on the kind of project that I don't normally enjoy - toys and dolls.  I don't particularly like making stuffed animals and dolls because when  all of the knitting is done all you have is a bunch of little pieces that require sewing together.  I despise sewing lots of little pieces together.  Probably because I am not particularly good at doing it.

All that said, I really wanted to make this particular doll.  At first I was discouraged by the 2,714 pieces that the pattern said were necessary - everything from hair bows to basic body parts.  As I stared at the instructions, all I could think is there must be a simpler way.  I set out to uncover this elusive simpler way.  I was bound and determined to find a way to knit this doll in one piece and in the round. 

I am happy to say that my mission was successful!  I managed to knit the entire doll and her clothing in one piece.  There were a few accessories that needed to be sewn at the end but compared to the way the pattern was originally written they were no big deal.

Meet "Emily. 

 She may be the first knitted doll with albinism.  I can't prove that though I personally have never seen such a doll.  She has fair skin and white hair with a slight cast of yellow.  Like those of us with albinism, she also knows how important it is to be protected from the sun so she wears big hat to complete her ensemble.

Isn't she precious!

Emily will travel this summer to be part of a fundraising raffle where she will meet her new family.

Nothing Beets A Good Friend!

A few weeks ago I wrote about the fact that I had beets that I didn't know how to cook and was fairly sure that I wouldn't like them even if I did know how to cook them. I asked for suggestions from any of you who may have a better relationship with beets than I do.

As is usually the case when I make such pleas, at least one of you always comes through. This time it is a wise friend and student who is offering her insight on just how to best share your dinner table with beets. She brought me a recipe from this cookbook -

- given to her by her Danish mother-in-law when she (my friend and student) married her Danish husband . . .let's just say, a while ago. I suppose that it is fair for such a mother-in-law to assume that an American girl from Dallas, Texas can'y possibly cook well enough for her son. Or, maybe she'd heard about chicken fried steak and cheese grits and feared for his gastric health. Whatever the case, my beets and I now are reaping the benefits of this gift of a cookbook.

The recipe is for Pickled Red Beets. If you like pickled things, it sounds good. The truth is that all pickled things taste pretty much the same. Okay, not pickled pigs feet. All pickled VEGETABLES taste pretty much the same once they are overtaken by sugar and vinegar. The "secret ingredient" in this particular recipe is caraway seeds.

I must admit that though I am grateful for an idea of what to do with my beets, it is some of the culinary techniques offered here that fascinate me the most. Particularly with regard to the cooking the beets before beginning the pickling process.

I love the fact that the cook is instructed to check the doneness of the beets with a knitting needle! The author of this cookbook is a woman after my own heart. Or is she . . .

Are Danish woman instructed to test the doneness of their beets or their cakes with knitting needles because all Danish woman knit?

("Insert knitting needle into center of cake. If it comes out clean, your cake is done though not necessarily your sweater.)

Because cooking beets is simply a distraction to their knitting?

Because it is assumed that they will always have a knitting needle in their hand?

If this is the case, I want to live in Denmark!

I must admit that I haven't tried this recipe yet because my knitting needles have been busy.

However, now that my needles are free, I will move on to trying to make the pickled beets. I might even eat a bite of them.

What's Missing?

When I was redesigned my blog, I debated with myself as to whether I should change the description of what I do here from “musing on the life of a teacher, mother, writer, knitter, human being.”  My role as a mother has changed since I began writing my blog, but I am still a mother.  Fortunately for my children, they have moved on to college and beyond and no longer serve as an unending source of material for posts. 

 Though I don’t write about it much, I love being a teacher.  One of the reasons that I steer away from this topic is because so many teachers have gotten in trouble for posting comments about their students and their jobs on various public forums.  Granted, many of these comments have been less than complimentary.  That is not an issue I would have.  I love my job and love my students.  Enough said.  

Being worn down by the dreadful heat here, having a list of things I need to do, and worrying about various people and situations and knowing that I have no control over either, is making me feel pretty human right now so I guess I still can claim human being.  I am not going to speak one way or the other about  whether or not I can call myself a writer. 

 That leaves knitter.

I am still a knitter though admittedly I don’t knit as much as I used to.  In and of itself, that is not necessarily a bad thing; it is the result of having more (good) things to do - one of which is a heavier teaching load at school.  Did I mention that I love my job - and my students?  Anyway, the responsibilities of such cut into my knitting time.  For the record, let me state here that it’s not watching Clean House and Happily Divorced on TV, or doing crossword puzzles, or writing blog posts, or playing Angry Birds that is compromising my knitting time; It is definitely my school/job related activities.  Really.  It is!

I have knit.  I do knit.  I am knitting.  The problem is that I have not finished much lately so there isn’t really anything to write about or to show you.  My bag of unfinished items may be further confirmation of my humanity.  In my own defense, I have started and finished a few baby gifts.  I gave them away without photographing them so I can’t prove that.   They were cute.  Trust me.  I also have taught a couple of knitting classes but I myself have not yet finished these projects.  Does it make me a good teacher if I tell you that I have not finished my own sweaters because I have spent a goodly amount of my time at the knit shop helping others finish theirs?  I did finish one of Weber’s birthday socks in time for his June birthday.  Its mate is still unfinished. Well, truthfully, it is still un-started.  It is 105 degrees here.  He doesn’t need wool socks now anyway, right?  I know that wool has a wicking effect but trust me, he is not going to wear wool socks any time soon.

Despite the fact that I have several “overdue” knitted items to finish, I am looking ahead to holiday knitting.  The other day I committed one of the knitters’ deadly sins; I was looking at yarn at a “craft store” rather than at the knit shop.    Not only did I look, but I bought.  I bought yarn and a pattern book.  (More support for my human being status.)

While we were looking at the pattern books, Weber made a disturbing discovery.  Thumbing through a book he noticed that several pages had been ripped from its center.  We’ve all seen this kind of thing before - the page with the recipe ripped from the magazine in the doctor’s office waiting room, which is inevitably the page that, on its other side, had the conclusion to  the fascinating article that you were reading.  tThen there are the coupons that have been lifted from the Sunday paper and the missing journal article that you needed to finish your research in graduate school.  It’s all the same - selfish people doing selfish things.

The thing that made this whole scenario of the book with the ripped out pages at the craft store even sadder is that it was a pattern book of knitted prayer shawls, shawls that are made and given to those who are facing tough times.  The intent is that the knitter “knits” prayers into the garment as they work.  What kind of prayers does someone who has stolen the pages from a book knit into their prayer shawl?  Maybe Knit one prayer of hope and healing for you, Purl two prayers of forgiveness for me.  At least that would be a step in the right direction.

The mother, writer, teacher, knitter, and human being in me says, Please don’t steal the pages out of newspapers, magazines, journals, novels, or knitting patterns.  Thank you.

Hat's Off!

It has been five days since snow blanketed our area . . .and much of the ground and steps and deck here are still covered. In the 27 years that I have lived in North Texas, the snow has never lingered this long. Usually, ice and snow cover the roadways early in the morning when decisions about school closures need to be made; by lunchtime there is no evidence that the snow and ice had been there only hours before. This time, the temperatures have barely climbed above freezing all week long.

I am happy that it has been cold all week. Why? Number 1 - because I like cold weather. Number 2, and most importantly, I finished Weber's "Christmas" hat the day before the cold weather moved in. His bald head has been warm all week long!

You may remember that I confessed a few posts back that I tend to finish his "Christmas" socks in June when he is wearing Birkenstocks and no socks let alone wool socks! This year I licked my own bad habit. I opted to make him a hat instead of socks. There is more than one way to win at this game! Hats, however, have not always been my saving grace.

Almost two years ago when we went to Italy, I decided that I would make Weber a hat on the flight to Rome. Nine hours in atmospheric captivity was plenty of time to get a simple hat made. No problem. Until, I realized a couple inches in that this hat was going to be way too big. My only option was to pull it out and begin again, which I did after a nap, a meal, and a few chapters of my book. What I am saying is that again I did not meet a self-imposed knitting deadline. As we arrived in Rome, the hat resembled a headband. Again I thought, no problem; I can get this done in the next day even with the agenda we have planned.

As we spent our first day in Assisi, it became apparent that all of my effort to finish the hat before we arrived was unnecessary. The temperatures were in the 60's and 70's during the day and only in the 40's at night; we weren't outside much at night so I abandoned the notion of finishing the hat at that point.

And then I learned a lesson. It either had to do with procrastination or God's sense of humor.

After a week of beautiful springlike weather in the Italian countryside, we awoke on our last morning to this.

"Boy, a nice warm hat sure would be nice!"

It's probably not much consolation at this point, but I hear that it's not snowing in Rome. We'll be there in a few hours.

One for the Baby Book

When your kid is twenty-one, you usually aren’t still thinking of firsts that warrant recording in one’s baby book. Many of the firsts that happen at this point in life are best left undocumented

• first week subsisting entirely on rice and beans
• first all-nighter
• first bounced check
• first time filing your own taxes
• first hangover
• first time buying beer legally
• first . . .

Then there is the first cable.

No, not cable as in TV, knitted cable.

My freshly twenty-one year old came home for Christmas break with the desire to knit her boyfriend a scarf. That, in and of itself, made me happy. I remember a time when I was talking to the girls about needing to write my will. One of them said that it was not important for me to do so because all I had were books and yarn; nobody would want that stuff. I now am comforted to know that I can leave my yarn stash to Offspring No. 1. I also know that she appreciates my healthy collection of poetry since I often have to reclaim volumes from her “nest.” Whew! One less thing to worry about.

In an effort to nurture this interest in knitting, Brooke and I sat down and looked at scarf patterns together. She already knew how to knit and purl; she wanted a pattern that would be challenging yet accomplishable and that was appropriate for a twenty-one year old man. That left out lace – challenging, but not appropriate. She decided that learning to make cables would be fun. We found a reversible cabled scarf, Here and There Cables in Interweave Knit’s ScarfSTYLE, that is a perfect first cable project and looks manly enough.

The next day, which happened to be my birthday, we took a field trip to the yarn shop to find yarn. (I probably had something in my stash that would have worked but we all know that going to the yarn shop and selecting just the right yarn for this particular project from all of the wonderful choices is a big part of the fun. I was happy to indulge her and it was a fun birthday adventure for me.) She chose a very striking deep burgundy yarn.

As soon as we got home, Brooke cast on to begin her scarf. She knit until time for the first cable row. At that point, she handed her work to me so that I could show her how to make the cables. I did the first few on the row and then handed the fledgling scarf back to her telling her that it was now her turn. I have not touched the scarf since. She had eight inches or so done before she left to return to school.

"Baby's First Cables"

It makes me happy that she both values and enjoys knitting, something that is important to me. Those of us who knit often make things for babies and children who have no context from which to appreciate the time and effort that went into whatever was made for them. After all of those booties, hats, mittens, doll clothes and sweaters, it is rewarding to see that appreciation emerge, especially in such a way as she wants to learn and develop the skill so that she too can create something for someone she cares about.

I hope that Brooke will finish her scarf before the Chicago winter has past. We discovered while she was home that Weber and her boyfriend share the same birthday. Many of the knitting projects that I have started for Weber over past Christmas holidays have not been completed until his birthday in June. Hopefully Brooke will not follow my example on this point!

As I was writing this post, I got a text message from Brooke that said, “I just joined my next ball of yarn all by myself!”

The following text message conservation ensued:

ME: Awesome! Are you enjoying knitting?
BROOKE: Yeah. I might make another scarf like this for me. A grey one.
ME: Big surprise. (Grey is her favorite color.)
Do you want me to send you yarn to match your hat? )I still have her “Christmas hat” to make. If I don’t finish it until her birthday next December, at least she will be able to wear it immediately. Just kidding; it will be done this weekend.)
BROOKE: Sure.
ME: I will get it in the mail early next week. I have not mailed the stuff you left yet. I will try to get some of it in the mail tomorrow.
BROOKE: Can you make sure that my magenta bra is in the first batch you send? It’s important.
ME: I’m not even going to ask why, but yes.
BROOKE: Proper undergarments are the fundamentals of a good outfit.
ME: I want to make sure that your fundamentals are in good array.

The end.

Whatever is going on with the magenta bra is probably one of those things that should not be included in one’s baby book or any other permanent record.

So, I will just smile and be thankful that my baby (in the magenta bra and . . .) has discovered the joy of knitting.