Knit & Play with Fire

Who Turned Winter On?

Okay, who turned the cold on? It has been really nice lately. During the day the temperatures have been in the mid 70s and at night it has been in the 50s. But the past two nights, the temperatures have dropped into the mid 40. Okay, actually, this morning when I got up the temperature was 38.

And while I love cold weather, the worst part of everything is that I have nothing to wear!!! Okay, I know that a lot of women claim they have nothing to wear as an excuse to go shopping. But I honestly do not have any cool weather tops that fit me any more. I have lost enough weight that my tops are too big. I have been slowly buying new jeans since I have had no choice but I have been able to slide by with my summer tops and t-shirts. But not any more, I have no choice but to go out this week and spend some money on cool weather tops. And I hate shopping!!! Wait let me rephrase that, I hate shopping for clothes. I love shopping for books and yarn.

And I have been buying books lately. Knitting books actually. I have finally managed to get my hands on a copy of Kim Hargreaves A Seasons Tale. This is a book that I have been wanting to add to my collection for a long time.  Now that I have added it I am not sure I will ever knit anything from it. But the designs are wonderful.

I have also added the new Nancy Bush book Knitting Vintage Socks: New Twists on Classic Patterns. I am curious about several of the patterns in the book and will have to study them before I decide to make any of them. I am a confirmed toe up sock knitter and the patterns in the book are all top down. But I think most of them can be worked toe up. If you have not had a chance to see this book for yourself, check it out.

I am trying to get some more fast presents knit up for Christmas. I found several skeins of Crystal Palace cotton chenille in my stash that I have decided will become washcloths that I will give as presents. I will add some soap from got soap and I have a nice little present for my SIL and a few other people on my list. And my stash will be reduced!!! (My SIL always gets my stuff that I can not use and that I will not like. But I try to at least give her something nice for a present.) And I will be using a few different patterns including the reverse bloom flower wash cloth from Weekend Knitting.

I have not stopped working on my Clapotis or on my mother's lace scarf. Although I did frog her scarf and restart after modifying the pattern to make it lacier. I have also rediscovered the pattern to Wicked that I started last spring. It is kind of hard to work on a sweater when you misplace the pattern. And I found a backpack that just needs one seam sewn before it can be felted. And if I felt that back pack and stuff a few items in it, my niece will thrilled to death with it. Yet another Christmas present crossed off the list.

Yes, I am trying to get my Christmas stuff done early this year. I have discovered that as my niece and nephew get older, it is harder to shop for them. My nephew is 11 and everything he wants is electronic and I will not feed that addiction. My younger nephew is easy; all you have to do is make sure his diaper is clean and feed him and he will be happy. But at 6 months, life is easy.

Added later - My fire company has received notification that we have received a federal grant that we will be using to purchase new hoseline, nozzles, and gear. I will post a link to the listing as soon as it is officially posted. I am excited because this means new toys!!! And I am on the list of people who may be getting new gear. The chief and line officers have a list who needs new gear for one reason or another and they will decide who gets the gear based on several factors. But I am pretty sure that I will be one of the lucky ones since I do average 35 to 40 calls per month.

Watching Paint Dry

Or How I Spent My Weekend....
I did spend my weekend painting or anything that exciting. If I go anywhere near a paint brush, I some how have a tendency to wear the paint instead of the wall.

But I did make it to knit group on Friday night. One of the the two LYS in town has a Friday night and a Sunday afternoon sit and knit session and I finally made to the Friday night session. This was the first session in quite awhile. There were only 3 of us there including Kristie, the shop owner. It was a nice enjoyable evening.

Saturday morning, I swung by the fire house to watch the hose testing for an hour or so before heading out to the other LYS. I had a return to make there and I ended up picking up a new book instead of leaving with a store credit. But I spent a few hours sitting there knitting.

What was I trying to avoid at home? Why cleaning of course!! I did eventually make it home and did do some cleaning. I also made a double batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for some little kids that I know. (I understand from their daddies that they have been allowed a few of the cookies but the kids are controlling the access to the cookies. And the kids are are 2, 3, and 4 years old. Smart kids!!)

Sunday was the day spent watching paint dry and so it seemed. Fire companies are required to have their fire hose tested once a year to meet a certain standard. My county allows us to either test it ourselves or hire an outside company. My fire company hires an outside company to do the testing.

The specifics involved in hose testing are actually pretty simple, you pull every single piece of hose in the fire house out and you take every single piece off every piece of apparatus and test it under pressure. Every piece is stamped with the pressure testing that it was manufactured to originally. It is first brought up to hydrant pressure and then the pressure is increased. The house has to sit under pressure for 5 to 10 minutes before it is drained and put away. The entire the hose line is under pressure some one has to watch for leaks of any kind including pinhole leaks. If the hose has any sort of leak, it fails the test. The nice thing is that the hose testing company is responsible for putting all of the hose away.

I went down to watch Sunday because our quint was being tested and we honestly never get to play with the hose on the quint. We carry 1,000 feet of 4 inch supply line on the quint and we never use more then 200 feet of it. If you ever see a fire scene, supply line is the big yellow hose line.

Every time a fire company tests hose line, you expect to lose a certain percentage of your hose. But you can save some of the supply line depending on where the leak is by cutting into shorter pieces. I did learn how to cut down hose line that failed to make shorter pieces which is a really useful skill. It is not a skill that you will use everyday but the same principle applies to fixing a garden hose.

I also remembered some of the skills that I learned in my basic fire fighting class in packing hose. Although the guys from the hose testing company are supposed to pack the hose back, I was up on top of the quint and they needed an extra pair of hands packing the hose. So I ended up packing hose. Like I told my chief yesterday, I do not ever want to pack 1,000 feet of supply line again.

And I decided that I am going to take today off from running calls. Without checking the stats, I have probably run over 40 calls this month, some one else needs to pick up some of the slack. Last month, I ran 38 calls. Last time I checked the stats in the computer for this month, I was at 38 calls and I have run at least 7 or 8 calls if not more since then. Some one else can get out of bed tonight. I want to knit tonight.

 

Christmas Present Already Started

Why, look, I have already finished one Christmas present!!! And I am at the half way point at another one!!! Okay, don't shoot me! Yes, they are scarves but they are knitted Christmas presents.

I was cleaning out the yarn in the living room this weekend when I found 1 ball of Rowan Plaid and 2 balls of Rowan Biggy Print. Since I can't Remember what I bought the yarn for I decided that I would knit up 2 really quick skinny scarves to have on hand for Christmas presents. It is always nice to have something on hand when the holiday season rolls around. And the upside of this is that I used up yarn that was in my stash.

And I found some novelty yarns that I will be knitting up into some more long and skinny scarves for Christmas presents. A friend has two young daughters that I know will love the bright and funky colors of the novelty yarns and that will use up yet more yarn.

And okay, I will admit that I found more than some novelty yarn. By the time I was done, I found a whole bag of novelty yarn that I either need to use up or that I will need to find a home for this wayward novelty yarn.

I was also quite tough with myself in sorting out the yarn that I found in the living room. If I could not see myself knitting it up within the next 12 months, it went into the bin to be sold or given away. I will updating the yard sale photos as soon as I get some photos taken of the yarns.

I have decided that I need to be realistic about what I will and can knit up in the next 12 months. My tastes in yarn have changed. And as I have lost weight, my tastes in clothing styles have changed as well.  Before I used to wear clothes that were a little on the baggy side. And I now wear clothes that are a little bit more form fitting and structured. Plus I am a bit more daring in what I will wear.

And although I am cleaning out yarn, I have added some books to my library. I will share the titles tomorrow.

Lack of Brains

Okay, I have actually been knitting but the proof of that will have to wait until tomorrow. Right now I would like to complain about my county government.

I just got back from a fire call that I should not have had to go out on if the county checked for brains when they issued burn permits. You can do controlled burns here in Frederick County so long as you go into the proper county office and have the right forms filled out and pay the county treasurer. But for some reason, they do not do a check for brains when they issue these permits!!!!

My boss, aka, my father, is not always so understanding about the fact that his local fire company is 100% volunteer and that I am one of the few people who runs during the day. I do try to limit the types of calls that I run to certain types. But lately we have been running quite a few brush fires.

But back to this particular call. I drove 20 miles an hour to the fire house. (The speed limit in town is 25 mph.) The chief and the driver were waiting in the brush truck waiting to see if the neighboring engine took care of the brush fire. (The neighboring company has paid personnel during the day and it was technically their area.) Well, they did get on air and but they did not place themselves on scene.

When we were coming up on scene, here is what we saw, large amounts of smoke blowing across the highway. My chief turned around to me and told me to finish gearing up. I was prepared for the worst including having to get out an air bottle given how much smoke there was blowing around. Thankfully, I didn't have to do that.

We got out of the truck and the chief was told that the farmer had a burn permit. Now this is a farm that runs along the main 2 lane highway that gets a fair amount of truck traffic going to Hanover, Pennsylvania. And the field the guy is burning is right next to the highway.

Oh, the weather today is nice and overcast and some rain showers. Well, to be more precise, we have had the rain spitting. But the wind has been kicking up all day. And that is why we got the call. And we will probably be getting more calls back to the same address since this guy has more fields he wants to burn.

The only I can say about it is that the other guys in the department need to get their butts down and start running calls. It is pretty bad when you know can show up to the station in a sports bra and sweats in the middle of the night and the guys you normally run with won't blink. I have come out of the house wearing a sports bra and sweats but I have a t-shirt on by the time I walk into the station.

Knitting and photos tomorrow. I do feel better now although I do wish they would check for brains before issuing those permits....

I Love Getting the Mail

I have loved walking down to the post office yesterday and today. Yesterday, I received a squishy package from Bron. I showed everyone the nice felting yarn she sent me along with the new to me book. And yes, I have already found a project or two that I want to do in the book.

And since, I had yarn to return to the yarn to return to my LYS last night, I picked up the yarn for one of the projects. I won't say which one because it will be quite awhile before I can start it. I need to finish up some stuff first. Plus I need to go up the road to the bead store and get the right beads. And I need to make sure I understand the pattern.

Bron, are you sure you can stand the shock? The pattern I fell in love with is a crochet pattern!!!!! Yes, you read that right - a crochet pattern! I actually plan on picking up a crochet hook and crocheting something. Don't worry, it isn't to complicated it is all chains and I can handle it.

Now for today's wonderful mail. I walked down to the post office as I normally do to pick up the mail for work and check my own mail box. And when I opened my own mail box, the only thing in it was a a bright yellow card indicating that I had a package. Now I did buy something off eBay but that won't be here until next week.

Well, when I picked up the package, MJ's address was on it. And I waited until I got back to the office to open it.

And what was inside that box was unbelievable!!! A card made by MJ herself and six, count them - six, skeins of Classic Elite's Lush in Color 4420 which is called Aqua Foam. She has suggested turning it into another Clapotis or a shawl or a wonderful scarf for myself. I am going to have to think about what I will turn this wonderfully soft yarn into. I have 744 yards to play it so I will be looking through pattern books .

And I have started cleaning up my living room this afternoon. I took a long lunch break while I baked a pan of brownies for bingo this evening. As I sorted through the yarn in one really big basket, I began to wonder why I have so much novelty yarn for some one who does not really knit that much with it. When the living room is clean and all of the yarn is sorted, look for new yarns to appear on the yard sale. I am sure that I will be finding yarns that I will be wanting to part with it again.

A-Choo Season

A-Choo Season
It is allergy season in the mid-Atlantic! Just ask anyone who is allergic to ragweed and they will agree. And the only that helps, other than drugs, is rain. Would some one please send us some rain?????

Knitting
This is supposed to be a knitting blog, right? Well, Last night was the first night in several that I was actually able to pick up the knitting needles. I managed to get in several rows on my Clapotis. It is slowly growing bigger. And I am really loving the colors more and more. I have never been that big a fab of orange although that has never stopped me from wearing it. But it really works in this colorway. I am up to the 6th repeat in the straight portion.

And on the new to me front, Bron has sent me some yarn from her stash. And she also sent me a book from her library.

See, sending stuff from your stash to some one else in exchange for stuff from their stash is a way to get around that pesky little thing called trying to spend money on new yarn. You are not spending money on new yarn; you are actually getting rid of stuff from your stash. The fact that you are getting stuff back in return is just a reward for cleaning out your stash. I mean you would be going to the post office regardless of the fact that you were mailing out that package, right? And that reminds me, I need to get some packages together so I can clean out my stash.

What Bron sent me was 2 skeins of green Gjestal and 1 skein of cream Gjestal. I will be doing some felting this winter. She also sent me a copy of Lily M. Chin's Knit and Crochet with Beads. I haven't had a chance to look through the book yet but I will take the time this evening while I bake.

And while I bake my cake and brownies tonight for bingo tomorrow night, I will work on cleaning up my living. Could some one please explain how it is that all of the yarn int he house seems to end up in the living room?  I will also be knitting. I think that if I throw two skeins into a storage bin, I can knit one row on my mother's Christmas present. It works for me at least.

iTunes Fixes
I have finally gotten my iTunes back up and running. It took quite bit to get everything from iTunes 5 off my computer. I have everything off but one thing which is still messing up my email but I have a work around it. I did manage to find a copy of iTunes 4.9 that I have installed. The only part of my library that I lost was stuff that I installed from cds that I own. Right now I am adding those cds back to the library. After the cds are added back, I need to figure out how to add the audio books back to the library and than I will be doing a massive music backup before I try to update an iPod. but the best part of the whole thing is that I have been able to go back through all of my cds and figure out which ones my brother has 'borrowed' and get them back. Okay, I went up to his house and used my key and liberated not only my cds but several of his cds as well. I wonder how long it will take him ti  figure out that they are missing.....

Fire Calls
Yes, I am still running them. What? You thought I would stop riding the engine? Never!!! Monday was a bad day. Monday started off with a call around 2:30 or 3 am and the next call was not until 9:30 in the morning. And that was an easy one because we didn't get too far in the ladder truck before we were put back into service. I was the only one in the office but I had promised the guy who was my driver that day that I would be back down if we had another call.

We did get another call later that meant taking one of our engines into a city station and sitting there. I had to go down to the fire house to let him know that there was no way I could go on that call. There were a few other people around for that call including the chief of the neighboring company. He agreed that I should not go on the call. He was getting ready to call it in that we were not going to be able to take the call when a box went out at the other end of the city. Everyone changed their mind at that point and the transfer was taken. I agreed to come back down if we got another call since some one else did agree to be my driver.

Well, we did get another call or two or three. The funniest part of the whole thing is that the first crew did not end up going on the box alarm which was a working fire. The second engine which I was one ended up on the box alarm. And than, we were asked to relieve that crew at the other major incident less than a mile away. And that one was a broken gas pipe.

And then the evening was topped off, by getting back to the fire house with just enough time to run home to change and get back to leave for the fair. I will never understand what it is about the thrill of tractor pulls. Nor will I ever understand why people actually pay money to watch them. But I had fun and I didn't have to do any work. Plus I got in for free and I had a front row seat. Next year, I will remember to pull my ear plugs out of my gear bag though.

And there were two best parts of the evening were that one of the teenagers from my station actually bought my dinner and a friend's son entertained me.

As to the dinner thing, see the only I had to eat Monday was an English muffin with peanut butter for breakfast. I did have a couple of bottles of water and some Gatorade on the fire scenes but that was it.  And the teenager actually bought my dinner since I had been running calls all day. Plus I have treated him before and he wanted to return the favor.

A friend, a fellow fighter, brought his 7 year old son, with him to the tractor pull. (He also had volunteer duty that night.) His son kept explaining everything to me. Some of his theories were actually pretty entertaining. But his best comments were that he knew he was 'safe with fire fighters because we would take care of him if daddy had to go and fight a fire because daddy would be at the front of the hose.' And he also told me that he knew that we would take him home to either his house or his pappy's house if daddy had to go on a call with his other fire station since we know were his pappy lives. He also said that he would prefer to go to pappy's house.

 

Quick Late Night Post

Just a quick late night post. I just got back from the tractor pull. I am tired; I am hot; I am dirty. It is 11:20 at night and I am planning on taking a quick shower and falling in bed. Keep your fingers crossed that there are no calls tonight because I really do not want to run any more call today. I have not picked up my needles at all today. Since midnight, I have run or received credit for 6 calls. I have actually been on 4 calls starting at 3 am. Two of the calls were back to back and they were major incidents. There will be more tomorrow when I will have had a chance to sleep and actually eat something. And I will hopefully will be able to pick up my needles. Oh yeah, I will also be able to actually get my real job done. I was not able to get a lick of my work done today. Thankfully my boss understands.

County Fair Not the State Fair

Warning - Picture Heavy

Okay, I know that many other bloggers out there have been posting about their visits to their state fairs. But the Maryland State Fair was last month and well, to be honest, I have never been to my state fair.

Now, my county fair is a whole different story. That is the place to be this week. Heck, foe years, the Friday of fair week has always been a day off from school for everyone. And since there are so many kids involved in showing animals, that all absences the week of fair week were excused so long as you were some how involved with the fair. But about 2 or 3 years ago, the school board changed their position and tried to change the rules. (There were some outsiders elected onto it. And outsiders are people who are not from the county.) And you can imagine how that went over!! Yep, like a lead balloon. The school board quickly changed things back to the way they had been for years.

Getting into the fair can be expensive but not if you have the right connections. The fair is privately owned and I am lucky enough to know several of the board members. And yes, I am able to get passes for parking and fair entry. This year, my friend's grandparents provided us with the passes.

So we went Friday night which was the first night the fair was open. We just wandered around and checked things out. But animals were still being brought in but we did get dessert there and had a good time.

And we went back Saturday night with another friend's 12 year son. And here is the amazing thing for all of you who are city born and raised, we did not step foot on a single ride!!  You have to realize that although my county is only 30 minutes from Washington, D.C., and great yarn shops like Knit Happens and Baltimore, Maryland, and that the southern part of the county is fast becoming a bedroom community. We are still a community that makes it living from agriculture and farming is a big part of the fabric of everyday life. And the even if you do not make your living from farming, it affects your daily life and the odds are that you know someone who makes their living by farming.

So as you can guess, the best part of our county fair are the animals. And the only downside, for me that is, are if you are allergic to hay and straw.

So you will be seeing quite a few pictures of animals of all varieties over the next few days. And I will hopefully be able to get some photos tonight of the tractor pull. Yes, we are still that county. But tonight for the tractor pull, I will be right down on the sidelines because I will be on the engine so I should be able to get some good pictures. And as to the order of the pictures, I think I will save my favorite animals for last for last. But we have all sorts of farm animals at our fair ranigng from all sorts of beef cattle, emus (yes, emus), goats, dairy cattle (including pregnant cairy cattle), pigs, more dairy cattle, sheep, horses, lots of sh*t on the ground, llamas, yet more dairy cattle, ducks, and alpacas. Oh, and I forgot, lots and lots of tractors.

And I will try and get all of the fair pictures together and in a photo album with labels because there were some really cute animals. But I must say this, pigs stink!!!!!

SP5 Goodies

Okay, I actually received this package yesterday but I was too tired to post yesterday.

And the reason for being tired yesterday was really good. I was off saving the world Wednesday night or rather my small part of it. I had a company drill Wednesday which was actually a tour and dinner at the largest company in our first due. We had finished dinner and the presentation portion and had just started the tour when the engine I was riding was dispatched on a call. We had just been placed back in service when we were told to head out to another location. But we got lucky because the quint was closer and they took it. We headed back to the station instead. We had a long enough break that I was able to run to the bank and head into the grocery store and start heading home before we got hit out again. All I can say is that I am glad that I didn't buy that ice cream!!!

We had got back from the first call when we got hit out for yet another call. We had just gotten back from that one and gotten everything put away on the quint when we went right back to the same place. Luckily for us, the most serious call was setting up the landing site for the Maryland State Police helicopter. (And I think I may have missed a call in there somewhere.) So I was tired Thursday.

But I went to the post office Thursday morning and I had a note that I had a package. And one of the beauties of living in a small town is that the ladies had the package on the counter already waiting for me. And of course, I had to open the package right there. There was all sorts of wonderful goodies in the box. Just imagine plenty of yarn in the box, some window clings, some wonderful lotions, pouches to keep knitting notions in, a little bitty notebook to keep track of what I am doing, tea, and cookies!!!!! Of course, the cookies did not even make it out of the post office. Sorry, Gracie, they are not even in the photos. I do share things like cookies. And I know that at least a cookie or two made it to my fire chief's daughter's mouth.

There will be more later because the Great Frederick Fair starts today and I am supposed to be going there tomorrow evening. I am not really that big a fan of the county fair. I don't really like the huge crowds plus I think everything is overpriced. And if you recall, I work my own carnival every year in July. So I am generally tired of fairs after working my own. I do go to carnivals hosted by other fire companies though because they are smaller and we do have to support each other and all of that good stuff you know. I will stuff my camera in my purse and try to remember to snap some photos for you tomorrow night. So you will probably get some photos of the cows at least.

 

Somebody Has a Birthday Today

Somebody has a birthday today and I forgot to send her a card! Her life has been so busy lately that she all she has been doing is teaching as a sub and knitting or crocheting. (Her boys have been e-mailing me and telling about how she has been ignoring them. And we won't go into what Arnold and Emma are saying.) So go on over to her blog and wish Bron Happy Birthday!!! (And I am being nice and not saying how old she is ;)