Knit & Play with Fire

Socks All of the Time

Okay, I have been knitting but I am not ready to show pictures of them. I have finally turned the heel of my Jaywalker after several discussions with my short rowed heel. It just did not want to cooperate with me.

I have also started my lace pattern for my Falling Leaves sock. This is the sock pattern that I am knitting for Sockapooolza or at least I am giving it a test run. I will let you know after I get a lace repeats in the sock if the yarn colors and the pattern will work together.

But in the search for the perfect sock yarn, I have added some new sock yarns to my ever growing stash of sock yarns. I ordered some Zen sock yarn and Claudia's sock yarn from kpixie.com. I must say that shipping is extremely prompt and I am loving the yarn colors. I have pinks in the Zen Garden and the color freesia in the Claudia's. And I was able to persude one of the Buddhas in my collection to pose and to recline amid the wonderful yarns.

And just for fun, I am inclluding a photo of me from my class on Saturday when we were testing hydrant pressures. Yeah, a fun thing to do on a cold and windy Saturday is play with cold water ;)

(And the guy in the white jacket is not only the instructor but he is also my chief. And he is a really nice guy on top of everything else.)

Staying Busy with Fires

We have been staying busy with fires in our next due area this week. We had a house fire that was pretty much limited to one room and its contents on Tuesday. And today, we were initially dispatched to a garage fire.By the time, we were in route, it was changed to a barn fire. The barn just happens to be located across from a garage!

I would post some pictures of Tuesday's fire but the photos from today are much more interesting. What we were told when we got there was that the fire was in a beam. So that meant as the second truck crew, we got to do the destruction and overhaul.

There really was not that much fire there but the barn was in pretty bad shape to start with in the first place. We did a little creative re-arranging of the stall that was involved. We also shoveled out some hay. The guys from one of the other engines were finally able to get up on the second floor of the barn and move some the stuff off the beams that we were interested in. And just moving the weight helped things quite a bit. The beams moved when the weight was taken off of them.

The best part of this fire for me was that the barn was home to some pygmy goats and two llamas! Yes, I can go to a fire and find some thing fiber related. I am going to try and go up to this barn at some point and get some better photos of the goats and the llamas.

Added later - I have added the photos from this week's fire plus another one from last month to my albums. I will be adding descriptions to all of the photos slowly over the next week or so. The funny thing is that all of the fires have been in our next due's area.

And here is the description from IAFF Local 3666 website on the fire - On Thursday February 23rd 2006 just after lunch, Box alarm 22-01 was struck for the house fire accross from 11026 Hessong Bridge Road. First arriving E221 went on scene with smoke showing from a barn to the rear of the house. The crew from E221 stretched a 200' 3" leader line back the drive way and began an interior attack. Interior crews found a small fire in the alpha-bravo corner of the structure with extension into the second floor. The fire was knocked in approximately 10 minutes, and the crew from T1 checked for hot spots with a thermal imager. Units cleared in about an hour. Pictures soon

Injuried Reserve

I have been knitting too much!!! I knit almost all day on Sunday and I somehow aggravated my shoulder. Okay, I also lifted more weights than I should have when I was doing my work out. I was doing a triceps exercise and did a few too many repeats. I had already done my daily yoga workout. And everything together means that I did more than my shoulder was comfortable doing in one day.

I rested the shoulder and took some pain pills. I did not run any calls for a 24 hour period. I also avoided knitting. It was still hurting last night before class. I let my chief know that it was bothering me again and that I would probably not run any calls for the next 24 hours or so. I iced the shoulder again last night and it felt better this morning when I got up.

But I decided to work on my socks at work. Guess what is causing the pain? Yep, the socks! Tiny needles and sore shoulders do not go together. I guess I need to work on something bigger than a size 0 for the next few days.

I also just got back from what should have been 2 working fires. I say two working fires because we were can celled in route to the second fire. And we would have been the first truck on the second fire. We went all the way down the highway non-emergency and turned around at the exit for the fire. We were just getting back on the highway when we saw the other truck that said they were closer getting off the highway. And that fire sounded good!! The initial on-scene report had fire in the walls. And with it being a restaurant, it would have been fun! Okay, fun for us not for the restaurant.

I will try and post some pictures tomorrow of some of the shots from the today's house fire. And yes, my shoulder still hurts.

Windy Day

Day is a really windy day here. There is a high wind warning out until 3 pm today. There is the potential for wind gusts of up to 50 mph. Too bad, I can't stay home and knit. I have to go out and go to work.

Last night, I did not go to bingo. Instead I stayed home and baked some cookies and finished the frogging on my Jaywalker. The cookies I made were my variation on the Famous Oatmeal cookie recipe. I generally modify recipes to suit what I want to make or have on hand. I toasted the oatmeal which greatly improves the taste to start. Since I had plenty of dried cherries on hand, I started with two different types of dried cherries - Bing cherries and montmorency red tart cherries. (Both from Trader Joe's.) I cut the cherries in half and than I cut up some dried apples into small chunks. I poured out some dried raisins into a bowl and poured some brandy over them. I heated the bowl with the raisins and the brandy to get the soaking started. After about 20 minutes, I add the cherries and apples to the brandy and raisin mixture.

When I mixed up the batter, I added cardamom along with the cinnamon. After everything was mixed up, I covered the bowl with a nice tight lid and stuck the whole thing in the back of the refrigerator. I like my cookie doughs to be really cold when I bake it off. I finally baked the dough last night. I will be taking most of the cookies with me later this afternoon when I head down to the truck house. (Hey, the guys down there work really hard running all of those automatic alarms every day that turn out to be false alarms. But the calls still have to be run.) The rest are going to my next door neighbor. (He shoveled my sidewalk for me this past weekend.)

 

This weekend will be spent knitting my socks and cleaning up my sewing room. I need to find a quilt top that I am sure is on one of the shelves. My chief's little girl is in love with pink and yellow and I am pretty sure that I have a small top in those colors. If I can find it, I am going to try and get it machine quilted this weekend. And just for fun, I am including some photos of the sock with my favorite toys. One has strictly music and the other has stirctly podcasts.

Falling in Love ...

I have fallen in love with a Hanne Falkenberg pattern. I know that many bloggers out there have either knit or in the process of knitting the Mermaid s weater. But I have fallen in love with an different design. The design that I have fallen in love with is the Diva s weater. And I love this black and oatmeal colorway the best.

It is not the only the only Hanne Falkenberg design that I like but I think that I am going to have to break down and make this design. And I normally will not knit anything in black. But I think this sweater will go with m y usual work clothes of jeans and a causal top and it will go with dress up cloths just as nicely.

I have found the kit on eBay but I have not found it in the colorway that I love. Does anyone know of a shop or website that has this particular colorway?

A Froggin' I Shall Go

No photos, but I am frogging my Jaywalker sock yet again. I have decided to I really much prefer a short rowed heel. So I am frogging it back to right before I started the gusset. You would think I don't like the pattern but I really do like it. I just need to make it my own.

And if I get the Jaywalker frogged back and back on track, I can try out a pattern that I am thinking for doing for my Sockapooolza socks. I have some Koigu in my stash that will work well with this pattern but I want to test drive it first.

Figuring out Podcasts

I have finally figured out what to do with my pink mini iPod. I am dedicating it to strictly podcasts. I have no problems subscribing to all of the knititng podcasts. I am just having some problems with the podcasts from Firehouse. Does anyone have a favorite method of importing the podcasts into iTunes? Firehouse usess RSS feeds but I am having problems. I have emailed them and asked if they would submit their podcats to iTunes so that it would be simple to subscribe to them.

And I am loving the knitting podcasts. I am working my way through them.

Good for 3 More Years

Well, I am good for 3 more years as an EMT-B in the state of Maryland. We had class Saturday and Sunday. Given that the MFRI policy is that classes are canceled if the snow emergency plan is in effect, the class as a whole decided that we would stay later on Saturday afternoon and get in another 3 hour segment. We also decided that we would have class on Sunday regardless of the weather. We decided to start class at 9 am instead of 8 am on Sunday though.

It had started snowing around 1 pm and it was just starting to stick to the roads when we got out of class around 4 pm. I had planed on going to Mass but I decided that I really needed to go to the grocery store. I was out of chocolate soy milk and I needed some hot chocolate to enjoy a good snow storm.

I finally made it home, ate dinner, and started studying and knitting. I have been working on my Jaywalker sock in class but it kind of helps to pay attention to the pattern.

But I first took a few pictures of the start of the snow for your vie wing. And I have some after the snow photos for your viewing as well.

We ended up with around 10 to 12 inches of snow in all. It took me almost an hour to unbury my truck. I was able to catch a ride to class with some one who has a bigger truck than my small one. And that was a good thing too. The back roads out to the highway were a little bit on the only slightly plowed side.

Class was relaxed and we did some review and played with the extrication devices that we use to get you out of a car and onto the backboards. And since I always have my camera with me, here is a photo of someone in the KED (Kendrick Extrication Device). And yes, it is as uncomfortable as it looks. (And yes, I have whited out the person's face.)

We tested after a short break. And with only 25 questions on the test, you could only miss 7 and still pass. There was one perfect score in the class. I only missed three questions and that was what I figured I had missed when I was done with the class.

And so I don't have to worry about EMT certifications for 3 more years. And by that time, hopefully MIEMSS will have figured out a way for EMTs to do most of their continuing ed through the internet.

True to Me

You are Dark Chocolate

You live your life with intensity, always going full force. You push yourself (and others) to the limit... you want more than you can handle. An extreme person, you challenge and inspire the world!

What Kind of Chocolate Are You?

Sock Time

I had a nice post almost completely written out when my browser froze!!!!!!

Okay, time to update on Sockapaloooza. I should have already done this but I have not had much free time lately. And free time is none existent until Sunday evening.

I already know what yarn I will be using for my socks. I have fallen totally in love with Socks That Rock. I love the feel and the colors of the yarn. So the only hard part will be deciding what color to use.

I have two or three (or four) patterns that I am considering. I think that I may end up ordering 2 or 3 (or 4) colors of the yarn before deciding on the pattern. The person who I am making socks for has left that up to me. And that can be dangerous. She has left everything up to me actually. (I did the same thing other than stating that I did not want a yellow sock. I do not like that much yellow.)

But decisions have to wait until Sunday evening. Between now and Sunday morning, I have to read all 300 some odd pages of my Maryland Protocols. I have my recert written and practical Sunday. The Protocol book is the bible for EMS in the state of Maryland. Thankfully, I only have to recert every 3 years but it is a pain. Since I do not ride the ambulance, I don't keep up with Protocol changes like I should. But we have a 24-hour recert class that brings us up to date on everything. And the written is 50 multiple choice or guess questions deopending on your viewpoint.

I also started my Fire Fighter 2 class last night. The first night of class and I already have a scheduling conflict. We are supposed to have class this Saturday and I have my recert class. Recert class has precedence though since it has already started. Plus my Fire 2 instructor will let me do a makeup lecture. Actually, he might just let me borrow the Power Point slides and go from there. There is one other person in the class who has a work issue with the same session so he wants to try and have us both make it up at the same time. But if her schulde does not allow this, he will do it one on one. I should point out that my instructor is my fire chief so that does make some things easier and some things harder.

Time to go and read.

Super Bowl Observations

Normally, I do not watch the Super Bowl. But this year, I really did not have a choice. Sunday, after day 2 of my EMT recert class, I went with a friend to the truck house in town to ride. He is doing driver's training and he is trying to get me to join there. Because this station is a specialty station, you pretty much have to be invited to join there. You have to be sponsored by 2 members to join.

Now, I have ridden down there a few times already. I wanted to make sure that I really liked the mix of people before committing. I ended up filling out my application Sunday afternoon after driver's training.

Since the trucks only go out on certain types of calls, you can be either really busy or really slow there. And the station is staffed at all times by 3 career fire fighters with the volunteers there when they can.

So Sunday evening was the Super Bowl dinner for the career guys and volunteers. We  were eating dinner as the actual game started when ... You guessed it, we got a call. The call as it was initially dispatched sounded like we would be doing some serious work. But by the time we got there, it was downgraded to food on the stove and we were needed for venting with a fan.

The call actually went out as an apartment fire with one trapped. And for those of you not familiar with how the fire service works, the truck company is responsible for search and rescue, ventilation, and overhaul. Truck companies rarely end up doing search and rescue and we were ready to use our skills. We get to use the fans all of the time. I know, I am twisted but realize what I do for fun.

So when we actually got back in time to watch the rest of the game. It is kind of hard to miss the game when all 3 tvs in the station were on the same thing. I thought some of the commercials were kind of cute. I really like the streaking sheep commercial.

And I did work some on my Jaywalker while the game was on after finishing up the dishes. And you have already seen the progress on them. I should hear in the next month or so if I get accepted into the truck house. My friend has been a member there for a number of years and there has only ever been one person denied membership. And I know the person denied membership. I am his friend but I would not want him in my fire company though.

I need to now go and register for some on line fire courses through the National Fire Academy that sound interesting. Plus I want to read through a master in liberal arts that Mount Saint Mary's is offering. It is not the work that is my concern about going back to school. It is the cost. At is $300 a credit hour and most of the classes are 3 credit hours each. That is a lot of yarn.

 

Like I Did...

I have proof that I am actually knitting. I had EMT recert class this past weekend and I took my knitting with me.

When we started birght and early Saturday morning, I only had 1 pattern repeat done. I am now up to the gusset part of the pattern. And that shall be interesting given that I normally do a short row heel. I am taking this sock with me to class tonight to work on during the boring registration process. And I know this particular instructor won't complain about me knitting in class. So long as I go to Starbucks before class, he is happy. Plus, he knows that I will knit him something. My instructor for my spring class is my chief and he loves hand knitted items.

I am loving this pattern and the yarn.

Quiz Time

I saw this on Catherine's blog and tried it. It is funny how most of her results and mine are the same.

And on the dating front, which you will notice I hardly ever mention, I was asked last night how I feel about long distance relationships. When I asked how far of a distance, my friend said about 250 miles or so. A friend of his works down at Virginia Tech and he thinks that the two of us would be perfect. He wanted to check with me first before giving his friend my cell phone number. And since I trust this friend, I told him why not! His friend is comfortable around fire fighters and he understands the crazy schedule. Plus what do I have to lose? If nothing else, I will have met some one new. And yes, I do really trust the friend who is doing the setting up. And his friend is a local boy who is just working down there right now. So we shall see how this goes...

 

 

You'll Find Love Where You Least Expect It

You're the type most likely to find love... surprised? You shouldn't be! You're a fun, independent woman who is always out and about. And you're smart to sometimes leave your girlfriends behind and go it alone. Men love to approach you when you're out by yourself - including Mr. Perfect!

Where Will You Find Love?

 

Still Tired

Yes, it is now Wednesday afternoon and I am still tired. I did go to bed a little early for me which translates to 10:30 with lights out at 11 pm. But the pager went off at 3 am for an EMS call. We were just pulling out of the door when we were placed back in service. I stayed when the other fire fighters left because I needed to fill out the log book. And the officer who was writing the report is a friend so I also stayed to bug him.

While we were sitting there, a box went out for an area that we sometimes cover. We sat around for about 30 minutes listening to the radio and b.s.-ing before leaving. I had not even made it 200 feet from the fire company driveway when the pager went off for a landing zone for the EMS call that we were canceled on.

We finally got home from that one and I managed another 2 hours of sleep before it went off again. This time it was simple - an engine transfer. We were transferring an engine to one of the city companies because they were out on a long call.

Traffic was horrific because of the call. But we managed to make it to WaWa on our way to the station. We were only there about an hour before we headed home. After another hour of doing things at the station, I finally made it home and was only slightly late for work.

But last night, I did manage to finish one sock and today I fixed a hat for one of the teenagers at the station. She is learning to knit and she kind of ran out of yarn finishing her hat. So I was really nice and frogged back one row and bound it off for her. Since I helped start the project for her, it is a hat knit by 2 people. I will take photos tonight to post tomorrow.

I am seriously thinking about turning off my pager tonight just so I can sleep. But I will not be running calls this weekend since I am class and I want to keep my status as the top responder for this year. So far this year, I have run over 75% of the calls. But tonight is mix cookie dough night and bake a cake for bingo. And of course knitting!!!!