Knit & Play with Fire

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.

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?

 

T is for Tired

Okay, last night I met a friend from my knit group at the local Starbucks because she needed some help. Actually, her step-sister is taking a class and is having a few problems getting started. And she is being taught to knit continental and I am a continental knitter.

After leaving there around 7:30, I ran to the bank and I decided to stop at the fire house. No big surprise there. But the big surprise would be that it was not my fire house. Yet.

I have been given the opportunity to ride at a specialty house in Frederick and I have become friends with one of the guys there. (He is a career firefighter and this house has only a few volunteers who actually show up on a regular basis.)

I stopped by to pick up a membership application. Yeah, like I have time to join another fire house! But I am going to do it anyway. This station is known locally as the truck house. Yes, it has two trucks, a air and light unit, and a duty vehicle. And that is all. There is no ambulance! And the trucks are tiller trucks which mean they bend in the middle. Technically they are known as tractor driven aerials. And I am discovering that I like truck work.

Truck work means no hose line. Trucks go in and ventilate the building, perform search and rescue, and handle overhaul. There is no hose to help you find your way back out of a fire room. But still I enjoy it.

While I was there talking to my friend, they got a call. And since I had my gear, I ran and grabbed it and got dressed in the back of the cab. We were put back into service when we were almost to the location. My friend and I talked until almost 11 when I finally left.

I was just going to bed after knitting for awhile when my pager went of at 12:30 for an automatic alarm. Run back down to the station and jump on the truck and pray that we get placed back in service before we get there. No such luck. We did not get back until a little after 1:30 am. So I am dragging this morning.

But I should be able to finish up a sock tonight provided things stay quiet. I have about 1/2-inch of ribbing left to go on one sock. Of course, I still need to start the mate but it still counts as actually knitting progress.

Photos tomorrow of the singleton and the beginnings of my toe-up Jaywalker.

Wearing Knitting in Public

Okay, here are few photos of me wearing my Clapotis in public as a shawl. My halter top was a little low cut and my seat at the head table was right next to the door, so wearing a shawl was a must.

And I at least was wearing that particular halter top. One of the ones I tried one was white and there was no way that you could wear a strapless bra with it. And although I loved it, I did not buy that one. I did get a great deal on the one that I am wearing in the photos. It was originally over $100 (Calvin Klein, what do you expect?). I got it for $32 with tax on clearance.

My fire company banquet is a big deal on the local banquet circuit apparently. We invite everyone who is a member of the company and allow them to bring a guest free of charge and they do not need to RSVP. (Several of the other companies require you to pay for a guest and you have to RSVP.) So we have quite a few people attend the banquet who we would never see at any other time of the year.

But most people show up to see who will be receiving awards for being a top responder. And yes, that is me standing there as one of the top responders. Every year, the chief tries to give us something that we can use as part of our gear. This year, it was new safety glasses that have their own protective case that will fit in your gear and a baseball hat. The hat is one that he had made for himself and all of the guys were wanting one, so he had them ordered for the top responders only. It was the company name on it and the state flag. But the most important emblem on the hat is the Pierce emblem. We are a Pierce only fire company. All of our heavy engines and the quint are Pierce. If Pierce made a brush truck, I am sure that our brush truck would be a Pierce. (And no, I will probably not be wearing the hat. I rarely wear baseball hats, but I will be using the safety glasses. They will be going in my new gear. I will keep my other safety glasses in my old gear which will be in my truck.)

Our guest note speaker was Mr. Charlie Dickinson of the National Fire Academy which is conveniently located nearby in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He was supposed to be there to hand us the ceremonial check for our award in the Assistance to Firefighters Grants in Round  7. But after seeing our station and meeting us, he changed his speech slightly. He was impressed by how we have spent previous grants and the fact that we have won grants in 3 out of the 4 years that we have applied. And as a side note, Mr. Dickinson is a friend's boss.

I also have a FO to show off. I still need to weave in a little bit but the blanket is done. And yes, this was some stealth knitting. I do not think I ever mentioned this blanket before. My chief's wife is pregnant and I decided to knit her a baby blanket. They do not know the sex of this baby since the baby is not being co-operative at all. And yes, blue is okay as a color for either a boy or girl I already checked. I want to finish weaving in the ends and wash it and drop it off at their house this weekend.

Sockapalooza

I am going to be knitting socks again. I just signed up for Alison's Sockapoolza. I am ready to start. I will be adding the button as soon as I remember how to add buttons.

And I will be posting some photos of me wearing my Clapotis at my fire company banquet. I need to figure out how to get a program to work first. I am designing the PAT (personal accountability tags) for the fire company and I am having a few issues with the program. It will draw in every field but one. And I need to have this program up and running by the end of next week. So I am buried under right now.