Warrior Knitter

Load and Make Ready

2012-01-29T14:10:00.001-06:00

Let's see. Haven't been shooting hardly at all. Mr WK and I have been passing a cold forth and back. These past few days, it's been my turn. It's not a bad one, mainly tired, and only bouts of regular cold ickiness instead of all the time. So we continue to lie low. I'm so tired of the taste of plain orange juice that I may have to resort to a splash of peach schnaps just to get it down.

Haven't been reloading much — see above. Haven't even carried in my new CCW bag — I've been able to wear the gun on my hip where it belongs. I thought I would this morning going to Mass but I was able to use my jacket to cover the bulge on my hip. 'Course I haven't been out much either.

I shot the Women's IDPA match this past Wednesday. Six shooters including two new shooters and six CoFs (Courses of Fire). I am especially excited about the two new shooters. Both knew each other (neither knew the other was going to be there that evening) and know other women shooters who may be interested in IDPA. A few days before the match one of the women began working at the gun shop right next to the range. So she'll be able to tell even more women about the matches. And both women are keen to shoot IDPA more than once a month, which means they'll shoot with the 'guys'. The woman who doesn't work at the gun shop her husband shot his first IDPA match only the week before at the regular bi-monthly match at this range. So if two of the women shoot on a regular basis with the 'guys' and with the women I'm hoping that more of the women will at least occasionally shoot with the 'guys'.

As to the match, a lot of moving hither, thither, yon and beyond. We did the Tueller Drill with two threat targets, three rounds each. I think everyone emptied their mag on it. We also had a low light scenario. The story was that you were emptying the trash at night from your place of business. You walk out the door and are a bit distracted by all the police lights. The range has several LEO light bars mounted on the ceiling. The only other light on the range was a dim light a few yards behind the threat targets so they were difficult to see. As you round cover carrying a trash bag in your strong hand, the buzzer beeps. You drop the trash bag and while retreating to cover you address each of the two bad guys with two rounds each. We also had a couple of stages that included a mandatory reload with retention or tactical reload. And there was the almost obligatory home defense stage. You open the door to several bad guys with a non-threat right in front — maybe the pizza delivery guy? — that you have to shoot around, in tactical priority; near to far. All good fun and great practice.

blogging to: Pandora seeded with Herb Alpert

reading: A Mended and Broken Heart the Life and Love of Francis of Assisi by Wendy Murray

Parting Shot

Is She or Isn't She?

2012-01-08T13:50:00.007-06:00

I've been on the search for something I'd NEVER, EVER thought I'd buy. A conceal-carry purse. Not being in the working world since I began carrying for the overwhelming majority of the time I've been able to wear clothing that would enable me to carry a gun on my hip or in a pocket. However wearing business casual clothing working that three-week part-time job in October and now going to Mass every week and sometimes during the week made me realize a truth for me. [YMMV]

As much as I dislike purse-carry there are times I'm going to have to do it. Oh, an ankle holster's still in the cards but for now this is more practical. I needed a new purse anyway. My old one was .... well ... old and well worn. I wanted one large enough to carry my stuff and my gun along with a spare mag or two. I also didn't want to lug around a huge purse either. I'm short and I wanted to at least get something that was close to the right size for my size.

I found this Concealed Carry Basic Hobo Handbag in red from Gun Tote'n Mamas. It met my basic criteria — it would conceal my gun if I chose to use it that way, it has zippered outside and inside pockets and it's large enough to carry all my stuff plus extra mags. The only thing I didn't like at first but may now be an advantage is that the bag (not the conceal carry part) is divided into two zippered compartments instead of just one. The drawback is that which compartment holds what I need? I've decided to carry my only wallet and any extra mags in one side and the rest of the stuff in the other. That way, if I need an extra mag I can find it without having to dig or feel through the entire contents of the bottom of my purse.

As far as guns, my Sig P238 is way too small for the holster included with the bag — which is fine. The P238 is my last option before no carry at all and in a pocket holster for safety was my purse carry gun. My preferred carry, my XDm 3.8 9mm is almost too tall and wide for the opening. I can get it out but I'm afraid it would get hung up in the opening if I was in a hurry. The Goldilocks gun seems to be my Glock 26. I can hold the purse at almost any angle and get the gun out.

Some of the features I like about this bag: the inside of the gun carrying area has a large area of Velcro and the gun holster itself has a large strip so I can reposition the holster, if necessary and the carry compartment has a zipper at both ends for left or right handed purse carry. It also has a wire running through the carry strap so it would be difficult for someone to cut and grab it.

Before this purchase I would carry my purse on either shoulder. BUT if I have a gun in there it needs to STAY on my left shoulder with the butt of the gun facing forward so I can slip my right hand into the zippered compartment and have the gun in my strong hand ready to go. If it's on my right shoulder it's a no go as I'd have to swith the holster position around and I would be drawing with my weak / support hand. So that's another caveat other than the most important one: I can't leave it anywhere when I'm in a public place even for a couple of seconds.

The good thing is that it looks just like a regular purse. I opted for red like my last two purses. The second reason [and most probably flawed] for red is that if 'guy' does a snatch and run it'll be harder to disguise a red purse. A black, brown / tan / navy bag is not as noticeable carried by anyone.

I've never been a feminine girly-girl. I'm not a bag / shoe switcher with every outfit or change of clothing. I don't even have 'outfits'! I have more holster and carry gun choices than I do purses and shoes. Most of the time when I'm out and about, the gun is on my hip and if I can put it on my body there will be a place for a spare mag. When I go back to work, not only is an ankle or maybe even a thigh holster going to be a reality, if pocket space is limited, I may even sport a concealed neck knife — rule #9.

When I was at Cabela's (where I found it) checking out, the woman running the cash register remarked that she didn't know they sold purses. Always looking to educate, I replied that it was a concealed-carry purse and showed her the zippered compartment with the holster and told her why I was buying it. She said me she didn't like guns. They were scary and loud. I mentioned that it was just like any other tool. By the way she repeated the tool comment I knew she'd heard that argument many times before.

We chatted about 'guns' while she continued ringing up our mostly gun-related purchases; her comments either negative or non-committal and my responses always non-aggressive but gun-positive. At the end, she remarked that if she had a gun she'd most likely shoot herself accidentally (back to the dangerous theme) and I replied that just like a kitchen knife that you know is very sharp (and dangerous), you have to be careful when you use it. So who knows. Maybe someday there'll be a straw that will 'break' in the right direction.

I haven't used this bag for it's intended purpose yet. And as I said most of the time there will be no gun in the bag. The only way anyone will ever know is if they see the gun. If anyone picks it up and it's heavy someone may ask, "What have you got in there? A brick?" My smiling, truthful answer, "No. Lead." After all, "everyone" knows that women don't like and don't carry guns. Guns are icky and scary and loud.

blogging to: an Ultra Lounge mix

reading: No Man Standing by Barbara Seranella (a Munch Mancini mystery)

Parting Shot:

Shooter Ready

2012-01-07T13:50:00.000-06:00

One of the IDPA clubs I shoot with held a Classifier instead of their regular match Thursday. Two of the women I shoot with in the Women's IDPA shot that Classifier — their first. The past several months I'd been encouraging our regulars to shoot a Classifier the next time one was held at that range. I'd already got them to join IDPA several months after they began shooting IDPA on a regular basis. So two goals down and more to go.

Another idea in my sneaky little mind is to get them integrated into at least occasionally shooting a match with the guys — at the regular semi-monthly IDPA matches. If I lived closer than 90+ miles from that range I'd be there for every match and that, I think, would get them to shoot with the guys even when I couldn't be there. They wouldn't be just a bunch of guys, mostly whom they don't know; they'd be a bunch of guys they shoot with on a regular basis — no longer mostly strangers but acquaintances, if not friends. I drove out mainly to 'be there' for the two women and to help with the match. As I most likely knew most of the other shooters and the other SO's (Safety Officers—none of them shot the Classifier but were there to help run the match) I did some introductions.

The Women's IDPA Match Director was one of the SO's so another familiar face. Between strings and shooters when a person that didn't have electronic ears could chat and not only be heard but hear the other person, I introduced both women to all the other shooters, particularly the other SO's and shooters I knew shot there on a regular basis. By the end of the evening, I noticed them in conversation with some of the other shooters. And when after each stage they took their score sheet into the 'booth' to be scored, they would spend a little more time with some of the regulars.

Hopefully one or both will venture in and shoot some regular matches with "the guys".

blogging to: Memories 89 1

reading: Relative Danger by June Shaw (a Cealie Gunther mystery)

Parting Shot:

It Just Pours Out †

2011-12-31T21:30:00.000-06:00

I started this blog back on November 15, 2005 as mainly a knitting and talking about what's going on in my life blog. At the end of August 2008 I began to slowly and cautiously to also blog about our new passion, guns and target shooting. After the election I began to let more of the "Right-Wing Extremist" seep into the blog, mainly in the Parting Shots. And for a long time it was shooting and life and knitting, not necessarily in that order.

And now I'm adding another element. I'm going to start posting about my Catholic Faith as it's now part of my life. No preachy stuff; that turns me off, too; just occasional Faith related posts and blogging about how I'm fitting my Faith into my life or is it that I'm fitting my life into my Faith.

I was raised in a Catholic family and went to a Catholic Parochial School from kindergarten through the eighth grade. My folks couldn't afford to send me to a Catholic High School as I had two younger sisters still in school. Because of those nine years with mostly nuns as teachers I got a very solid grounding in the Catholic Faith along with going to Mass every. single. weekday and every Sunday.

Faith has always been present in my life in one way or another but I didn't go to church or pray on any kind of a regular basis. I'd always joked that I was a collapsed or expired Catholic.

But over a year ago, October or November, 2010, I don't remember exactly when or why I decided to read the Bible — just a chapter or two every night or so. Long story short (which I'll tell in subsequent posts) on November 19 I went to Confession and took Communion for the first time in ... well ... a very long time.

I've always tried to live a Christian life but now that I'm a practicing Catholic who wants to continue to take Communion and along with no mortal sins that means going to Mass every week, usually Saturday's for me and on Holy Days. And learning how to all of a sudden fit my Catholic Faith into my everyday life. [If we go to the range on Saturday I'll get up early on Sunday and go to early Mass or we can go to the range on Sunday and I can go to Saturday afternoon Mass.]

As I've never been a practicing adult Catholic until recently and as I want to deepen my faith I'm figuring out how to say the Rosary every day. I went to a seminar at church and learned a lot. My current answer is that I don't have a set time. If I have the time, I like to say a Scriptural Rosary. I love how the Bible verses amplify the Mysteries. I also prefer to say it out loud as that tends to keep my mind from wandering too much but neither is always possible.

I'm also figuring out how to fit prayer, Bible study and my one or two Bible chapters into every day. I like to pray at the end of the day as that calms and relaxes me. I'm not very good with extemporaneous praying (making it up as I go along) so I found some prayers on line, printed them out and say those, usually either praying in a soft whisper or speaking them silently to help keep my mind from wandering. Doesn't always work but I notice it a lot quicker than if I just read them like I do a book. And I change some of the prayers and change the order around every so often.

If I haven't had a chance to say the Rosary that day, I'll say it at the end of the day. My daily Bible study and chapters I can work in anytime but it's usually at the end of the day. I start reading Ecclesiastics this evening.

blogging to: Memories 89 1

reading: Catherine of Siena, a Passionate Life by Don Brophy

Parting Shot: "The devil strains every nerve to secure the souls which belong to Christ. We should not grudge our toil in wresting them from Satan and giving them back to God. -- St. Sebastian

Quote source

We Had a Merry Little Christmas

2011-12-29T11:50:00.002-06:00

It's been quiet here which is just how we prefer it. We had our traditional sauerbraten Christmas Eve dinner at Mr WK sister's house. The hardest part was the trip in with the smells of fresh out of the oven raspberry scones and bread wafting about the car. Everything was fantastic — roast beef, smashed potatoes with gingersnap gravy, corn and carrots and freshly baked bread with Assumption Abby Bakery fruitcake and local Strawberry Hill povitica for dessert.

I'd finished up Christmas shopping the day before. I'd stopped by our local World Market to get some fancy chocolate and maybe some teas for my SIL. While I was wandering the food aisles I saw Sticky Fingers Raspberry Scones Mix. My SIL loves raspberries so I picked up two — one to bake and one to give to her. I made 'em just before we went over to their house so we didn't get a chance for a taste test. Once there however, we all broke off pieces of one to sample and it was really good!

Now, of course, I put my usual touches in, such as adding Penzey's Vietnamese cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves and nutmeg to the dry ingredients. I chose to pat the dough out into a circle rather than drop by spoonfuls onto the baking sheet. Before they went in I brushed them with melted butter and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar. So, next time I'm down thataway, I'm going to pick up a package or two for us! I'm not normally a big raspberry fan but even I liked 'em.

Among her chocolate selections, I found Vosges Mo's Bacon Chocolate Bar. We sampled that too, after all the gifts had been opened. Not bad. May have to investigate further.

Wednesday, I got to shoot the monthly Women's IDPA match at Godfrey's Ranges in Junction City. After sitting at only four women for several matches this summer and fall, we had SIX again! Two of our newest shooters were unable to make it but we had one new shooter and a shooter who has been unable to come to the last several matches. I'm hopping for even more at the January match!

The new shooter is 12 years old! Her dad shoots with the Double Tap group that Mr WK. and I shoot with. One of the match directors has been coaching and practicing with her for several months. She did fairly well. She has better IDPA range manners than some of the adult new IDPA shooters I've seen. She enjoyed herself and as long as it doesn't interfere with her school work, she's going to shoot with us as often as she can. I hope that when the Corndogder Station matches start in March she'll want to shoot those too.

Two of our regular shooters are going to shoot their first IDPA classifier at the regular match in January. I plan to come out, cheer them on, take videos and help SO the match. Taking that into consideration, the entire match was combined and various stages of the classifier. For instance, for our first stage we combined the first three strings on the first stage. Our second stage was string four and five; after your took the head shots, you transferred the gun to your weak / support hand and shot string five. Stage three was string six from the first stage of the classifier and on thru. Where it was possible we combined strings so we could fit most of the classifier stages and strings into 8 separate stages.

Thank goodness I'm not classifying. I shot like crap. Just could not get my head into it. Some matches and days at the range are like that.

But I took lots of video which I'll get up sometime this weekend ... at least that's the plan.

We're hoping to hit our local outdoor range this weekend. Don't know yet what we'll take or which range we'll Occupy! but it'll be fun.

blogging to: local police scanner

reading: St Catherine of Siena, A Passionate Life by Don Brophy

Parting Shot:

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T13:23:00.002-06:00

Luke 2:1-20

1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.
2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
3 And everyone went to his own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.
5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.
6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,
7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,
18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

2011-12-23T20:26:00.001-06:00

Gift ammo, chocolate and other gifts have been purchased but not yet wrapped for SIL & BIL. For my BIL's birthday we found this Winchester.22lr ammo at Walmart. He reported at Thanksgiving that he had almost none that didn't fire in his S&W M&P 15-22. So of course, we got him TWO boxes for Christmas. We decided to put it in a spare ammo can and wrap the ammo can in some camo wrapping paper that we hear is at our local farm and home supply store. We'll check out that tomorrow morning. I got my SIL a couple of packs of those Dirty Bird multi-colored splatter targets. She likes those and if that makes her want to go to the range more I'm all for that! I love those splatter targets and I'm always thrilled when there are either unshot ones at the range or space left. But as much as we / I shoot they are way too expensive for every range trip. But wouldn't those person-sizes ones be neat for IDPA though? Put new ones up for every shooter and the shooter can keep his/her targets if they want. That would be especially cool for the Women on Target events. The women would be able to SEE right off how they're doing and take home a cool looking target to boot! Ah, it's only money! Meanwhile I've bagged all but the ammo in recycled Christmas gift bags and new tissue. I buy a few plain ones throughout the year that will work nicely either for Christmas or birthdays and I only needed to use one of those for some gift cards. All I need to do now is put some of my signature curly ribbon on the handles and that part is done. reading: The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith (an Isabel Dalhousie mystery) Parting Shot:

On Course

2011-12-20T20:06:00.001-06:00

Mr WK and I drove out to the lake on Saturday to check on our 23' sailboat, Spray. Still there. Kinda sad seeing all those boats, sail, power and pontoon up on the hard.

The boat was in pretty good shape. I pitched out a bunch of dry, dead leaves from the cockpit and pulled some icky guck from both cockpit drains. I also positioned a sponge I'd left there over one of the cockpit drains. Hopefully that'll keep anything else that drifts into the cockpit from blocking at least one of the drains. I don't want to come back in the spring to this ...
.
I will be paying for my sins, however. I'd used that blue painters tape to tape around the base of all the teak trim pieces. I was planning to get back out there and most likely put the first coat of teak sealer on it. But I didn't. Nor did we get back out there until this past Saturday. Oops! So I have yards and yards of easy-peel-off painters tape — which is now not so easy to peel off — to strip off. And the few bits I was able to get off have loads of dirt embedded under it. [sigh] Well at least I know a good product to get tape and tape residue off fiberglass.

Sunday Mr WK and I drove to the outdoor range and met one of our down the street neighbors and one of his buddies there. When Mr WK and I go by our lonesomes, we often have plans to hit more than one range, usually the hi-power and the pistol range but almost as often we only make to one range. When we meet friends there somehow it's easier to stay on a schedule. We do however, end up spending the majority of the time on the hi-power range.

We started off at the rim-fire range. I don't like iron sights and my Marlin 980 S was the only .22 with a scope on it. Our neighbor has a Ruger 10/22 with a red dot. I like the way that rifle shoots and feels but I'm not in love with the red dot. I was pretty accurate at 75 yards with the red dot but I just couldn't seem to hit anything at 100 yards even though everyone else seemed to have no problems. Of course, I was the only cross dominant rifle shooter so I was probably seeing the sights a bit differently than everyone else. So that rifle is now on my 'list'.

After an hour or so we moved up to the hi-power range. It was busy and crowded but as luck would have it, we knew two of the shooters and they made some room. Nothing says fun like six shooters and more than twice as many rifles. There's a rifle rack that holds probably 15 rifles on one side and by the time our group had unpacked all of our toys, the front rack was full and there were some on the back. This wasn't counting the ones on that went directly to a shooting bench.

We shared rifles, ammo and conversation for the next couple of hours. We were the only ones that currently reload .223s so so we lucked out and got everyone's .223 brass! Mr WK got to shoot a Mosin Nagant again. Both of our down the street neighbors have one and so does the friend that came along Sunday. The one the friend had, seemed to have a lot more recoil than the ones our neighbors have. I shot it. Once. OK, that was enough for me. I'll go back to my carbine and my .308 thankyouverymuch.

With just under an hour of daylight left the four of us packed up [again!] and headed to the pistol ranges. Shortly after we got unpacked and everything laid out, the small (narrow) free-form range next to the big range with the benches opened up. Our neighbor wanted to practice shooting at a closer range than 25 or 50 yards, which is all that one range had. I found an intact target stand with sticks and some cardboard still attached and lugged it over there. While I was looking for a target stand the neighbor was mining that small range for pistol brass. There was a USPSA match that morning and there was a lot of brass. Between the two of us we got quite a haul. I think we got back what Mr WK and I left at the several IDPA matches we shot there this year and didn't pick up our brass.

For some time my unofficial pistol coach has been using a one flag dueling tree he made. He has now got himself a three flag dueling tree so he gave us his one flag.

Granted, the flag had a serious crack which is not in this photo which was taken last summer. The flag didn't last very long.

This is what it looks like now. It's still usable but the target area is small and it swings very fast now. So we're going to have a friend who has access to some hardened steel fix us up a new flag. I can see many duels between Mr WK and myself in my future.

All in all a great afternoon. Everyone confirmed they can still hit the 200 yard gong at the hi-power range at will with irons and/or optics. And everyone got at least a few shots on the 50 yard gong at the pistol range. Much ammo was expended and much brass was gathered for a future time.

blogging to: Christmas music on CD's

reading: Tooth and Claw by Nigel McCrery (a DCI Mark Lapslie mystery)

Parting Shot:

Scary Gun Shirt is Scary.

2011-12-15T19:47:00.006-06:00

I ordered 'some' primers and powder the other day. When the Fed-Ex guy rang the doorbell I popped out to sign. He'd actually already lugged the heavy box back to his truck as I hadn't heard the doorbell the first time. He seemed a little freaked out but I just assumed it was because he was irritated that had to haul the box back out of the truck and back to the house.

Pondering, later in the day, I realized what shirt I had on . . . my Gunwalker shirt.

So maybe miffed and scared (OMG! a picture of an EBR!) and definitely NOT a gunnie. Can you imagine a gunnie NOT saying something about it. And probably a liberal anti to boot as this is Lawrence, KS, a dot of blue in the sea of red Kansas.

I wonder when the ATF is going to show up?

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought by John Gibson

Parting Shot:

It's Purple!

2011-12-13T13:05:00.003-06:00

I've been working on some Christmas knitting. I don't normally give my knitted items away as official gifts. But this year I'm officially knitting my SIL, the recipient of many, many pairs of hand knit socks, a couple of my very first garter stitch scarves and a lacy shawl, a scarf for Christmas. They downsized recently and she can't find any of the scarves I've knit for her.

Since I'm on a time schedule here, it had to to simple and quick. And also soft and wearable. She likes this color by any name so I'm doing a bit of a do-over. Almost the first thing I ever knit for my SIL was a fun scarf in a flame colored eyelash yarn. The second scarf I knit for her was at her request and she wanted purple mohair (photo at left). Mohair is a great yarn but I think it's scratchy. So although THIS scarf will also be purple and in garter stitch it's being knit on 6mm rosewood circs instead of 9mm straight needles. I really did try with the straights in a couple of different sizes, even some shorter ones. But I've knit with circular and double pointed needles (dpns) for so long straight needles seem too long and awkward — even the short straights!

The yarn I'm using is Cascade Alpaca Lace — 50 gr is 437 yards so it's very thin. I'm holding it double. As the yarn is thin, I decided to use smaller needles to get smaller holes which is also going to take longer to knit! The scarf is lofty and light weight but as it's 100% baby alpaca it's very soft and warm and I plan to knit it long so she can wrap it over and around several times. The colorway is called Thistle and it's a lovely royal purple, almost the same color as the mohair scarf. Even if she does find it, she's probably ready for a new scarf anyway.

So far after five days, it's around 12" long and 12" wide, unblocked. Whether or not I block it depends on how close to Christmas Eve evening I get it done.

Consequently, all the other projects are now on the back burner unless I need a stoplight knitting project. The purple scarf is not suitable for stoplight knitting as I'm holding it double I need to make sure I get both fine strands each time. Even paying attention, mostly, I have to fix at least one stitch or two every couple of rows or so.

blogging to: Pandora Radio seeded with Carol of the Bells

reading: Cypress Grove by James Sallis (a Joe Turner mystery)

Parting Shot:

Incident Command System

2011-12-11T19:00:00.002-06:00

Not any shooting this weekend. It was cold and overcast and busy with other things — some shooting related and some not.

Early Saturday morning I trekked out to one of our 'local' indoor ranges and hour and a half away. One of the members of one of the IDPA groups I shoot with, an EMT trainer, was to give a seminar on gunshot trauma at a match. Dealing with gunshot trauma was certainly what most of us expected. What we got was much more. Yeah all of us know this stuff but for the most part none of us ever sat down and thought about what exactly to do at a match if someone is seriously injured by getting shot, or catching a serious ricochet, or if someone is having a cardiac event, a diabetic emergency, a seizure, fell & hit their head on the concrete floor, heat related issues (for you non-shooters most indoor ranges are an oven during the hot months of the summer) or even something as 'harmless' as a bee sting.

In the main, it wasn't so much a first aid lesson but an guideline on how to set up some procedures should we have a "Threshold Event". What we learned was how to set up an Incident Command System.

For example, the SO (Safety Officer) running the timer is nominally in charge unless he/she is the one injured. #2 SO is the scorekeeper, again unless he/she is the one injured. If it's someone behind the firing line, the nearest SO takes charge.

The #1 SO's first duty is to make the only loaded firearm on the scene safe, either by the standard unload and show clear, etc commands or by having the shooter reholster the weapon, depending upon the circumstances. The #2 SO is either to call 911 or delegate a specific person to do so. Naturally, if there are any physicians, EMT's or paramedics shooting that day, their priority will be the patient. As this could be a 'Threshold Event' we need to keep everyone who was there, there until the LEO's arrive and have a chance to interview folks. We were also told that the range, the club, the Match Director and the #1 and #2 SOs may be sued.

If this is a range with multiple bays shooting will be stopped on all bays and all loaded guns made safe. The #2 SO also should delegate someone to meet the ambulance when they pull up. This person should also help the EMT / paramedics carry their gear. The person would also give some specifics to the guys on the 'bolance such as it is or isn't a gunshot wound, patient hit their head on the concrete floor, and / or cardiac event, etc so they'll know to bring a C-collar and spine board (for a fall) or not, possibly insulin for a diabetic emergency, etc and to lead the crew to the patient. We only have to be in charge for 5-10 minutes until the 'bolance gets there.

This last scenario changes a bit when we get out to the boonies. At Corndodger Station we're 20-30 minutes out by vehicle from a hospital. The volunteer 'bolance comes from the east and the nearest hospital is to the west and north so the best we can do to help (again depending upon the circumstances) is to meet the 'bolance with the patient in a private vehicle where the gravel road to the range meets the paved highway.

A lot of good information and the Match Directors and co-match directors of the two clubs Mr WK and I shoot with on a regular basis will be developing SOPs and getting the word out to all of our unofficial SO's and regular shooters.

Mr WK and I will also be putting together our own gunshot wound first aid kit to take with us every time we plan to hit the range, whether it's a match or just an afternoon of plinkin'.

One of the clubs we shoot with also has a Muzzleloading limb that's been around far longer than the IDPA twig that sprouted only four years ago. They have what they call a Frozen Butt Rendezvous in January. Well this year, one of those guys, who also shoots with us is planning what he is calling a Frozen Fingers IDPA match ... in February. February is usually the coldest, snowiest and iciest month around here. Should be interesting. They may have to run a taxi service from the nearest plowed road to get some of us up there.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Cypress Grove by James Sallis (a Joe Turner mystery)

Parting Shot:

Shooter Ready?

2011-12-04T21:40:00.008-06:00

Mr WK and I shot an IDPA match Sunday morning. Brrr! It was literally freezing when we started to set up! Where is Algore when you need him!? Everyone was multi-layered, hatted, booted and gloved up. It rained quite a bit on Saturday so the soggy ground was frozen solid. By the time the match was over, it was a muddy mess. Mr WK shot his M&P 9L and I stuck with my XDm 3.8 9mm.

We had six stages and 13 shooters. The first set-up did double duty. I like those — half the work and two stages! We shot it the first time free-style which for most folks is 2 hands. The second time through for the second course of fire the targets which were the same at both ends of tall cover were shot with strong hand on one end and support hand on the other. The ending shot on both sides was a 6" plate at around 15 yards. Fun stuff! I did great on the first CoF even though the SO had to remind me to shoot the plate on the first end I went to. I didn't do as well on the second one. My support hand only shooting is usually more accurate than my strong hand only. I suppose it's because I'm right handed but left eye dominant. I shoot pistols, right handed and rifles left handed. I line up the sights on my left eye which might be why my support hand shooting is better.

The third stage was WICKED Good!!! and involved a new prop. It was two threat targets on either side of a non-threat, attached to a 'car' that slid down a taut cable between two posts. It was activated by a 'bear-trap'. The shooter held a weighted bag in their right hand and at the buzzer, dropped it onto the bear-trap which released a pin holding the 'car' with the targets attached. The 'car' slid down the cable away from the shooter and ended up behind cover. The shooter had to shoot [at] it while retreating then shoot some more bad guys through a gap between 'walls' then move down a hallway and take down a short popper that was behind cover. The sliding targets worked a treat!

The round chambered in my gun didn't fire* so I racked again and it banged! But by that time the bad guys were almost behind cover. I took the shots anyway. I got the first bad guy twice on the upper part of the arm farthest away and one round in the area between the center zero zone and the upper part of the arm farthest away on the second bad guy. And ...AND... I did NOT hit the non-threat between them! Shocked everyone, even me! To top it off, I got the short popper with one shot! We hates the short poppers!

* We looked at the round when we got home and just a light primer strike. No idea why. Never had any trouble the rest of the match. I took it apart (love kinetic bullet pullers) and Yep, it had powder so Mr WK took just the case with the ... um ... live primer, put it into his 9mm and yep, the primer WAS good. And I can reuse the bullet.

The fourth course of fire in the smallest bay was IDPA standards; 2 strings — first string was limited Vickers—the classic El Presidente drill. To the non-IDPA folks limited Vickers means if the directions call for two rounds each on each of three targets all you can shoot without penalty is six rounds. If you miss one you can't shoot it again without a penalty because that would mean you shot seven rounds, not six. So, two rounds at each of three threat targets in tactical sequence (in this case it was near to far), reload from slide-lock and shoot 'em all again the same way. This was at 15 yards. I did so-so on this one.

The second string was at 20 yards. From behind tall cover, 2 rounds each at the same three threat targets from both sides. This stage was similar to the first two strings of the third stage of the IDPA Classifier only backwards, no moving or kneeling and no tac reloads and the first string was Limited Vickers. This second string wasn't Limited Vickers but in this stage for this match you weren't allowed to top up your mags between strings. Kinda hard on the CDP guys who only had ONE extra round for this second string while the other folks had a whole three extra rounds to burn! I didn't do well on this one at all. I apparently need to practice shooting the 50 yard gong from cover.

Again for the non-IDPA folks, when you shoot from tall cover, you're not standing up straight in the Weaver or Isosceles or whatever stance. You're leaning out from behind a wall. 100% of your lower body is behind cover and 50% of your upper body is behind cover so you're all bent and tilted over sideways and maybe even a bit off balance. As the second string was also in tactical priority (slicing the pie), as you lean out a little you shoot the first threat target you see, which may or may not be the closest one but leaned out just a bit, it's the first one you see. After you address that one, you lean out a bit more, still keeping 100% of your lower body behind cover and take out the next one and so on. Sometimes, I have to shift my feet as I'm not only short but short-waisted and don't have as much upper body to lean out as some of the taller folks do. And if you're crowding cover (standing right up next to the wall), it's even worse. You have no room to do anything because the wall █isrighthere.

The fifth stage had elves rebelling against Santa — Occupy The North Pole! The 'story' was that they did all the work and Santa got all the credit. Maybe yes. Maybe no. Maybe no-yes. Santa was a hostage, you escaped and they were coming after you.

They had a regular IDPA target spray-painted up in a Santa suit, complete with a dripping white beard and red suit with a black belt and buckle topped off with a Santa hat. We used a lot of short sticks for this one as all the targets were ... um... short, except for Santa. There were 6 threat-elves including two on either side of Santa, holding his legs at gunpoint.

As they were all equal threats, this one was shot in tactical sequence; one round to each body first then shoot 'em all again — one more to each body and one to each head. On the shooter's second pass you could do one round to the body and one to the head (or two head shots—the head is a part of the body) or one more round to each body then back across and do the head shots. Everyone on our squad did it two passes.

You started the stage sitting on the ground behind a snowbank, facing uprange and at the buzzer you had to scramble around to your knee(s) and shoot 'em over the top of the 'snowbank'. That part sucked!

The final course of fire was ... interesting. You started out, seated at your desk at work. Your loaded gun and extra mags are in the desk drawer to your right. The desk was staked to the ground so the guys wouldn't pull the empty desk over pullin' the drawer out to get to their gun. At the buzzer while seated your pulled your gun from the drawer and fired at the threat target in front of you. Behind the threat target was a large popper connected to TWO drop turn targets a couple of yards in front of and a little to each side of that first target. They were maybe 3 yards apart and they were quick! Too quick. Many got at least one shot in one. A couple of our very best shooters got hits on both—two on one and one on the other but I don't believe any of those hits were in the zero zones, -1 and -3 zones, I think. Anyway, then you grabbed whatever mags you wanted from the drawer, stowed them and hopped up to deal with more bad guys down hallways hiding behind file cabinets. It was all good.

I was very tired and sore by the time we were done. I bowed out of the putting away. My boots were hurtin' my feet and I knew I had blisters on both heels. So I sat down with a plastic ammo box full of tap ammo, my UpLula and thumbed out the rest of the competition ammo and reloaded all six mags with tap ammo.

I took videos of our squad on all six stages. It'll take me a few days to make them all into videos and upload them but eventually they'll be up here.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: The Inferno Collection by Jacqueline Seewald (a Kim Reynolds mystery)

Parting Shot: Was THIS why the elves rebelled?

Sock It To Me!

2011-12-03T15:15:00.001-06:00

I don't know if the blogging mojo is back or it just dropped in to visit.

Anyway today it's about the knitting.

I'm currently working on two sock projects, one for myself and one for Mr WK. Both can be considered stoplight knitting as they're easy ribbed patterns — no lace and no cables.

As I mentioned in an earlier post the ones for me which are now tentatively named Spock Socks is in Austerman Step yarn in the Vulkan colorway. The built-in stripes are several rounds wide and have a bit of color blending between. The pattern for this is the Yarrow Rib from Nancy Bush's book Knitting Vintage Socks. I've got the first one done and have cast on for the mate. The cuff is done and I've knit several rounds knit on the leg.

Yeah, the top of the toe on my sock is kinda wonky but I'm just going to ignore that. By the time I'd figured out what I'd done, I really didn't feel like ripping all the toe decreases out.

The pair for Mr WK is being knit from some leftover Mountain Colors Barefoot in shades of dark blue colorway. This is the same yarn I used for his Deep Blue Something Socks. These new ones are just a simple k2, p2 ribbing under a k1, p1 cuff. The yarn is so dark that I didn't want to fight the yarn to try to see what I was knitting, particularly if I have to go back and fix something. So far no clever name for these. I'm around the same place on these as I am with mine.

In between I've been able to get in a row now and again on the White Caps Afghan, which has been trudging along now for 3½ years. I made huge progress last winter so maybe I can have it finished or mostly so by spring. I've been trying to remember to do a row (350 stitches) when I sit down to watch TV but often the siren song of a sock is stronger.

There is, however, a great advantage to working on the afghan. It's warm. It's long enough that it drapes nicely over my lap and legs as I work on it.

blogging to: Memories 89 1

reading: For Glory by Elizabeth Lee (a Carlyle Hudson mystery)

Parting Shot:

Practice. Practice. Practice. Then Practice Some More

2011-11-29T20:05:00.000-06:00

Since I last posted some real words instead of placeholders we've been shooting almost every weekend except for this last weekend. This weekend we prepped a couple of hundred pieces of .308 brass. We loaded half up with our standard accurate plinking load (Hornady 150 gn fmj bullet & 44gn Varget) and the other half for water bottles, milk jugs, hedge apples and if you're feelin' cocky, walnuts (Hornady 110gn V-max bullet & 46gn H335).

We often split our time between the high power and the pistol range but usually it's the pistol range that gets short shrift. And on the high power range my time is split between workin' some off-hand CQB drills with my carbine and bench resting it so I can shoot the 200 yard gong using my red dot optic. Then there's plinkin' the 200 or 300 yard gong with my .308 or getting serious and fully resting my .308 to see how tight I can get my groups if there's a paper at the 200 or 300 yard target.

At the pistol range other than occasionally shooting a few magazines at the 50 yard gong with my or one of Mr WK's pistols I usually stick to target acquisition drills. I may not be much quicker but I'm a heck of a lot more accurate that I was a year ago when I started working strictly on target acquisition.

And a word about shooting the 50 yard gongs on the pistol range, freehand with a pistol. Five or six months ago they moved the gongs from the small free-form pistol range to the edge of the large pistol range with the target stands at 25 yards. My hand and arm strength has improved a great deal since I started shooting at least a magazine or so at them every time we shoot at the pistol range. I can hold the pistol steady enough now to hit it most of the time at first, then as I tire, about half the time and then it goes down rapidly from there. When they first moved them the only way I could hit them was to bench rest the pistol and then it was mostly likely a lucky shot.

This Sunday we've got an IDPA match at the Cap City range. We haven't shot an IDPA match since we shot the 2011 IDPA Postal Match the first of November. This one will be chilly with highs in the high 30's from an overnight low in the mid 20's. Set-up starts at 7:30am and the match starts at 10am. At least it's supposed to be dry and sunny. We'll just layer up!

blogging to: Pandora Radio seeded with Manheim Steamroller Christmas

reading: Murder by Bicycle by Veronica Heley (an Ellie Quicke mystery)

Parting Shot:

-->

I'd Shop There

2011-11-22T22:08:00.000-06:00

Not Too Late

2011-11-19T18:28:00.001-06:00

The Walmart Walk

2011-11-14T18:42:00.000-06:00

Captain Obvious Reporting In

2011-11-10T16:25:00.000-06:00

She's back.

Was just not feelin' the 'I want to blog' thing. Don't know if the blog mojo is back, so I might be posting some place holders like this for a while.

Knitting
SIL's Poems socks are done and they're just waiting for Thanksgiving to be delivered. I've cast on for 2 more pair. A pair for me using Austerman Step yarn in the Vulkan colorway. The built-in stripes are several rounds wide and have a bit of color blending between. The pattern for this is the Yarrow Rib from Nancy Bush's book Knitting Vintage Socks.

And a pair for Mr WK using some leftover Mountain Colors Barefoot in a shades of very dark blue colorway. Just a simple k2, p2 ribbing. The yarn is so dark that I didn't want to fight the yarn to try to see what I was knitting, particularly if I have to go back and fix something.

Shooting
We've shot several IDPA matches and Mr WK did another 3-gun in October. Our outdoor matches at Corndodger Station are done until spring but we're shooting an IDPA match once a month at the outdoor range in Topeka.. And there's been lots of casual for fun shooting, too. No new guns but we've picked up some new toys for our carbines. I finally have the ambi mag release I've wanted for over a year now. I also added a Magpul angled fore-grip and a smaller pistol grip on mine. Mr WK got a new smaller hand guard for his.

And nothing new on the job front. The temp job was 3 weeks and nothing since.

So basically since I posted the last time; lotsa books read, lotsa stitches and lotsa ammo being loaded and unloaded.

Parting Shot: "Why are the only two options always a behemoth government program or the guy dies?"

Quote Sourcel

Bang! Bang!

2011-09-20T08:24:00.006-05:00

I had this in with the previous post but decided to post it as a separate entry.

Since I last posted we've shot an IDPA match at the Corndodger Range and I 'worked' another Women on Target Event. We also hit the range several times.

The Women on Target Event was at Fancy Creek Range near Randolph, KS, just north of Manhattan, KS. I offered my services to a fellow IDPA shooter who was going to be working the pistol part of the event. I volunteered for either rifle or pistol.

RANT!
I ended up on the rifle range with my rifle. WhooBoy! Was THAT a mistake! The fellow runin' the rifle range didn't like me, my rifle, my Double Tap shirt or how I did things. I was the ONLY woman involved with the guns in the entire event. I also apparently didn't show him the respect he thought he was due. I considered myself a peer in that we were both fellow shooters. I showed deference to his 'experience' and that this was 'his' home-range and not mine.

I was also a woman with a rifle. And not just a regular rifle, like say a .22lr with wood furniture or a traditional wood-furnitured hunting rifle. Noooo. Me and my bad-ass evil black carbine with quad rails, a red dot optic, bi-pod and flash hider. Even with the stock extended all the way it was too short to fit on any of the rifle rests. This fellow had all of his heavy, fancy wood-furnitured .22lr competition rifles set out on a table. Nope. Couldn't put it there; might influence ... er .... scratch one of his rifles. So I decided to set it at the end of a seating bench at the back of the range, facing the berm, mag out and bolt open with a bright yellow chamber flag.

My gun was too loud. HAH! Yes, compared to a .22LR but it wasn't ANY louder than the other AR (which looked like an old Colt AR, non-collapsible stock, carry handle, 20" barrel, no rails or flash hider and with a by-God scope) or any of the other larger caliber 'hunting / sport' rifles.

After I'd listened to his spiel the first go-around I didn't need to listen to it again so I wandered to the other end of the rifle range and began to pick up brass using the box folks had tossed brass in for the event. There was a sign saying to pick up your brass and so as I had nothing else to do while he talked, I began to pick up all the brass I could find that was reloadable. When he saw that he was LIVID!! I'd mingled the brass. For some reason, he said he was going to figure out how much ammo they'd used by counting the spent brass. Made NO sense to me. What if you missed some? What if some of the women wanted to take a piece of the brass they shot home? Which several did. It made better sense to me to know how much you started with and see how much you had left at the end of the day. I notice he or any of the other guys helping didn't pick up any of the .22LR brass to count it.

I should also say that I joked a bit and talked guns with the first two groups of participants which was also frowned upon. During first group one of the women wanted to know how the different shotgun shells got their sizes. I joked that guys named them so they made no sense. That got a laugh from everyone and a glare from him. (sigh).
After he had his say on the brass incident, which was as the second group was leaving, I asked if he wanted me to leave. Did he feel unsafe around me; the way I handled the guns? No. No. Didn't want me to leave just if I wanted to do something ask permission first. Good Grief!

So, I stayed as far away from him as possible the rest of the day. I never addressed another word to him. I focused on the women, which was WHY we were there--not to engage in a pissing match. And truly the only reason I stayed was the women participants. I was the ONLY woman handling the guns that wasn't a participant. And I wanted them to see another woman that was knowledgeable about guns; wasn't afraid of them and liked to shoot! It almost made me wish I'd also brought my DPMS LR-panther .308. I think that would have torn it.

The final indignity was my evil black rifle case. I'd stashed it under the bench my rifle sat on. Well, apparently that was too close to where he had the cases for all his fancy guns. When I got ready to case up my rifle (yes, I asked permission [eye roll]) it wasn't where I'd left it. He'd moved it several feet away. Mr WK figured he didn't want it to give his 'fud' guns any upstart ideas! LOL!

None of the other men I met that day had that attitude. Since we got back into shooting I've NEVER met anyone like that. With his attitude and his opinion of female shooters why in the HECK is he even involved in the Women on Target events? The only reason I can think of is he's on the range board (or in charge of the rifle range) and figures that's part of his duties. With guys like that around, no wonder more women don't shoot if they run into attitudes like that.

Other than that, the event was fine. They only had five groups so each station (there were six) had a free period. Luckily, the free period for the rifle range was the final one, so I took myself up to the pistol range for the final one which is where my fellow IDPA shooter was. What a breath of fresh air. I'd also brought four handguns with me to flesh out their selection: Glock 26 (subcompact 9mm), Springfield Armory XDm 3.8 (9mm), Browning Buckmark Camper (.22lr) and my Sig Sauer P238 (.380 pocket gun). I think the guys runnin' that range liked my choices.

I let the guys do their pistol spiel and just helped out on the firing line when the women began shooting the guns. Next year, I told them I will ONLY do the pistols.

I'd showed up with lots of flyers for the Women's IDPA match and between my fellow IDPA shooter and myself, we gave quite a few away. As I was on the rifle range for most of the day, I didn't get a chance to talk much about it. The rifle guy talked so long that the women only had 10-15 minutes out of the hour to shoot (most everyone else only spoke for 15-20 minutes). But I managed to get a plug in for it now and again. I hope a few of them at least show up to see what we do. I'd be over the moon if any showed up ready to shoot!

a bit more RANT
One more point, what is it with assholes as instructors for Women on Target Events? There was 'special forces guy'* who gave the spiel for the first four groups of women at the Capital City Event in June. He swept everyone multiple times as he demonstrated various things on and about the rifle. Yes, the rifle was empty, no magazine and had a chamber flag but still! I figured as 'we' were the knowledgeable ones 'we' should be on our best behaviour as to how to handle the firearms. Also teach by example. I did the last two and did it without once sweeping anyone. It wasn't that hard. Just be aware every second of where your muzzle is and where it's pointing.

Once 'special forces guy' heard my bona-fides during the introductions (several--four actually--carbine courses taught by an active Army Sargent whose job it was to teach solders how to shoot and competitive pistol shooting--IDPA) and saw that I knew how to handle my carbine (not my husband's or a borrowed one--MINE), he wanted nothing to do with me.

Are there more out there? So far I've done two events and the two worst gunnies I've ever been around were connected to this event as 'instructors'. Have I just been lucky not to run into more of these fools on the range? Oh, I've seen the snickers and the looks occasionally from young guys as I take guns and ammo out of the range bag and put 'em on the bench at a couple of the indoor ranges. But that disappears when they see how I handle the weapons and what my target looks like (usually better than theirs). Are those guys, these guys?

*during his introduction he said he was in the 'special forces' and I think had taken every NRA certification course available, Evar! He reeled off a bunch of them.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Bleeding Hearts by Ian Rankin (a mystery)
and
Godless: The Church of Liberalism by Ann Coulter ~ audio book read by Elizabeth White

Parting Shot: "Pass this bill now, or I'll say "Pass this bill now!" another two dozen times!" ~ Mark Steyn

Quote Source

And ..... We're Back!

2011-09-19T20:05:00.003-05:00

Oh my, where to start so I can start again.

Knitting

I finished my Joseph's Coat Socks and have worn them a few times. I'll get photos up soon. Still not in love with the color scheme but they do fit and feel nice when worn. They'll make great socks under jeans or cargo pants. I thought I was making them a tad larger than necessary so they could shrink, being cotton socks, but that turned out not to the case. I hope they don't shrink much.

You know the Poems socks I had almost finished ... except for the toes. Frogged. Both of them. I had my SIL try them both on when she was here for her birthday celebration (which went very well, by the way). I tried to be clever and as my SIL injured her ankle a few years ago (one is larger than the other) I made the sock for the injured ankle and foot slightly larger. As luck would have it the 'regular' size sock fit the leg and foot with the larger ankle just fine.

Which would have been just peachy if I hadn't decided to frog back five rounds on the foot as I wanted to start the toe decreases a bit sooner. And ya know the axiom about best laid plans ... the wool was very clingy and difficult to deal with. In trying to pick up the stitches and put them back on the needles, I dropped stitches and lost stitches (this yarn goes from very thin to thickerer) and it was a mess. So I frogged that one all the way down to the ground as well as the one that wouldn't fit either foot. Back to square one, with numerous balls of yarn. (sigh)

One thing I did do was try to match the beginning and ending pieces up in the various balls of yarn so that there wasn't a sudden color change. I wanted the change from on color to the next to be more of a subtle blending rather than an abrupt change. That's what the yarn is supposed to do.

So far, I've reknit one of the socks. It 'was' the smaller but is now the larger one. I've cast on and have a dozen or so rows knit on the cuff of the smaller one.

A shooty friend has requested a watch cap in bright white wool. No problem there except for the color. Bright white wool is difficult to find. As most light-colored wool is some version of cream or ivory, bright white wool yarn has to be dyed. My local yarn shop had some but most of what they had wasn't soft and I don't knit scratchy. I haven't had a chance to look on line, but I'd rather get it locally anyway.

Luckily when I told him I was having difficulty finding bright white, he came up with a couple of other colors, forest green or desert tan. I haven't been able to get back to my LYS to see about the second and third choices yet. I'm hoping I can get some of that Inca Alpaca by Classic Elite yarn I used to knit the Out of the Blue watch cap I knit this spring. I think it comes in a forest green. I also think it's a bit heathered. I really don't want to knit in brown. Even desert tan.

WK Pays the Bills
The first part of July, I registered with a company that supplies office folks on a temporary or full time basis. I took all the tests, went for an interview and heard nothing until a few weeks ago. I suspect what happens is that when you sign on, you are added to the bottom of the queue and when your name bubbles up to the top, there you are.
I don't know how much the temp company tells the folks who hire the temp company workers but I suspect it's not much other than test scores and the like. I think they pretty much just get a name and summary of skills.

Currently, I'm in the second week of a two week temp job for a property management company in Topeka. Mainly, I'm answering the phone and doing a few little other tasks. The main person here took a few days off bracketing last weekend and the other person is taking a few days off at the end of this week. Yes, I am being vague on purpose. There's a possibility of a third week here but that remains to be seen.

The pay's not great but I'm not doing much either. I spend most of my day looking at trade magazines. I suspect this was an easy try out the person who hasn't worked in five years to see how it's going to go. And in a way it's worked for me because I've been able to ease back into working--getting used to getting up, getting ready and getting out the door by a certain time every day.

The only hitch in the get-along has been clothing. Almost all of my 'business casual' wear is not CC friendly. And I don't have a lot of it. I haven't needed it! At my last job, it was business casual but in the ensuing years as I wore it and wore it out I replaced it with casual clothing more suitable to not working.

So as I begin to slowly build up the business casual wardrobe again, it's with CCW in mind. Pants with sturdy belt loops and pockets (for an extra magazine, maybe my flashlight and knife) and tops and jackets that 'conceal.' It's going to take more consideration than if I just needed 'some clothes for work'. And not that I ever paid much attention before, but what's with women's dress pants with pockets having such shallow pockets. You can barely fit a Glock 26 mag in one let alone two mags, my tactical flashlight and SOG knife!

On that same note, I need to find a better holster for my Sig P238. The Galco IWB suede one I have works fine for jeans and cargo pants but apparently dress pants fit differently. Somehow. Anyway, the gun is lose in the holster and I'm afraid it's going to fall out of the holster when I wear it with dress pants.

And I'm one of those women who doesn't like shopping for clothes--which probably explains why I have a smallish wardrobe. When I find something that I like and it fits I tend to buy it in a few colors that work with everything else. Why start all over again with a different style and have to try on ten more things so that you end up with x number of tops or pants?

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Bleeding Hearts by Ian Rankin (a mystery)
and
Godless: The Church of Liberalism by Ann Coulter ~ audio book read by Elizabeth White

Parting Shot: "I’ll put it this way. You don’t deserve to keep all of it and it’s not a question of deserving because what government is, is those things that we decide to do together." ~ Jan Schakowsky, the Democrat who represents Illinois’ 9th district, speaking on WLS Radio on 9/14/11

one of many Quote Sources

Two Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-Six

2011-09-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

R E M E M B E R

5 Needles and 3 Guns

2011-08-17T20:30:00.000-05:00

I've been working on the second Joseph's Coat Sock. The cuff is done and the leg is just about finished with less than ten rounds left. So it's rollin' along. And it looks pretty much like the cuff and leg on the first sock.

I need to be thinking about my next project. I'll stop for a bit on this sock after Saturday and finish my SIL's Poem's Socks. She and my BIL are coming in to celebrate her birthday. I'll have her try on the socks and hopefully I'll just have to do the toe decreases. I wouldn't mind if I have to knit a bit more on the foot or frog back some. I just hope I don't have frog them.

I'm thinking about casting on for another pair for Mr WK. The last two pair I knit for him I finished in just under a month. That way he'll start the colder part of the year with several pairs of warm hand knit wool socks. I bought extra yarn last December and January when I got the yarn for other socks so it'll be just a matter of which color and a pattern.

This past Sunday Mr WK shot his first 3-gun match. Everyone had a blast, literally [see video below]. He will be shooting a 3-gun again. There were five stages and 14 shooters. I didn't shoot well ... any guns, anyway. I wielded the camera. It was hot and sweaty and I think everyone fumbled at least 1 shotgun shell while reloading under pressure. It was all birdshot on this match. The first stage was the only stage that had all 3 guns in play. The second stage was carbine only. The third stage was shotgun only. The fourth stage was pistol and shotgun and the final stage was long distance carbine.

That was a lot of shotgunin'. Minimum shotgun rounds for the match was only 44. But Mr WK shot 77 rounds and that's probably about average. I'm going to be trying a lot of different gauges and shotguns in the coming months to see if this is something I want to do. We will get into reloading shotgun ammo simply to cut down on the recoil.

blogging to a quiet house

reading: A Final Judgement by Michael A Black (a Ron Shade mystery)
and
How to Talk Like a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter ~ audio book read by Elizabeth White with the 1st chapter read by Ann Coulter.

Parting Shot:

No Longer Melted

2011-08-12T21:20:00.001-05:00

The first sock Joseph's Coat Sock is finished. I did a round toe instead of grafting the toe closed. That means that instead of decreasing down to 12 stitches on two needles I'll decrease right down to a total of four to six stitches, string the bitter end of the yarn through them twice and pull it all up tight. And I even wove in all the ends.

Somehow things seem more relaxed with these cotton socks. Could be because the yarn has no body. Still not loving the pattern the colors have taken but I decided way back before I stared the heel that I didn't feel like froggin' back to the cuff. This yarn sat in my stash for 5+ years for a reason, people. And truly I have no idea why I ever bought it. I never have liked the colors. Go figure. But as I said it'll be a good fall, winter cotton sock.

I've cast on for the second one and the cuff is half finished with twenty rounds done.

Next weekend SIL & BIL are coming in for SIL's birthday. She'll try on her Poem's Socks and I hope to have the toes finished by the end of the month when we meet up again for BIL's birthday.

The heat wave has broken. We've had cooler weather and rain off and on for several days now. It's been wonderful! One morning it was so cool — in the high 60's — we had the air conditioner off and all the windows open for several hours. I've even mowed the lawn.

Even with the almost constant watering, all the trees and bushes were heat stressed — particularly our River Birch clump in the backyard. It's lost a lot of leaves but is still hanging on.The huge multiple elm tree in the backyard to the south of us has died; most likely from the same bug that killed ours several years ago. I'm just surprised it took so long. There is one elm over there left and I wonder how long before it dies. The folks next door are the kind that don't do anything outside so I figure they'll just let the tree fall. I don't think it'll hit our house if it goes down in a winter or more likely a spring storm next spring but it could. If they haven't done anything by the end of the year, I'll brace 'em on when I see them out with their dogs.

The folks in the rental house to the north didn't do anything when their elm died a few years ago. Luckily it was in the back corner of the yarn and only took out part of the neighbors wood fence. It laid in the backyard for several days before some one came and cut it up. They left the three-foot high stump. The renters wanted to keep the wood and burn it in the fireplace but when they moved out it was still up along the fence line. The logs have been there ever since and now they're covered with weeds and brush.We're probably the only ones that know they're there.

I shot an IDPA match a week or so ago. It was just as the heat wave was breaking and we were starting to get some rain occasionally. It was still hot (in the low 90's) and humid but not quite as bad. It was fun. We had six stages and only seven shooters. We have two more of these Thursday night matches left before it moves to one Sunday morning a month in October. Come mid-spring I hope we can either move the matches back to Thursday nights or add these weekday nights to the schedule.

We also spent last Saturday at the outdoor range in Topeka with fans! I intended to get some pistol practice in but spent quite a bit of time with my .308 shooting at the 100, 200 and 300 yard ranges.

Mr WK is going to shoot a 3-gun in the near future and he was working the red-dot on his carbine at the 200 yard range. We figure he'll shoot this one and he'll see if he likes it enough to get an inexpensive rifle scope for his carbine. The other issue is the shotgun. We have a semi-auto Beretta and found out that it may be able to shoot 7/8 oz loads. One of our gunnie buds has a similar model and loads his own. We aren't going to be able to meet up before the 3-gun and try out his gun and loads so we'll punt for this match. But we may get into shot-shell reloading. From some other friends that reload for shotguns, we found that it probably won't save us much as component prices, especially the lead shot are high right now but we're more interested in a lower recoil load. We may be able to get the recoil down low enough that *I* might consider 3-gun.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: The Romantics by Peter Brandvold (a western)
and
How to Talk Like a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter ~ audio book read by Elizabeth White with the 1st chapter read by Ann Coulter

Parting Shot: "We have to trust the free-market system. This isn't Little League where everyone gets a trophy, [but] if we do not start trusting our entrepreneurial spirit, we will find ourselves a diminished nation." ~ Congressman Allen West

Quote Source

Blurry or Just Melted

2011-08-03T18:14:00.001-05:00

I figured the stockinette leg on the Joseph's Coat Sock would really drag because:

It's cotton
It's hot
I'm not that in love with the colors now that I see 'em knit but they're ok
2mm bamboo dpns
lately not that much time to knit
It's hot

But, apparently not. The leg is done. Of course, it helps that the leg is only 51 rounds. Coupled with the 40 round cuff I have 91 rounds on the before-the-heel section of the sock. Why 51 rounds? I intended to start the heel flap on round 51 but forgot to slip the first stitch so instead of tinking back 35 stitches (where I wondered and then checked) I just knit all the way around and started the heel flap on round 52.

The heel flap is also done as is the heel turn. I've even picked up the gusset stitches which is not shown in this photo which was fairly easy with this yarn.

I'm not disliking how the colors on the leg ended up but I don't love it either. It looks blurry with how the colors merge into each other. Since it's so hot I guess you could say they melted ... like crayons. It is a nice soft cotton sock and it'll be great for summer or winter wear. I am kinda glad since it's been so hot (heat indices near or over 100) for almost a month now that it's not wool.

Speaking of the weather, for a while yesterday we had wind chill. Note the right now temp and the feels like temp. And no, we didn't get ANY of that forecast rain. Not a single micro drop.

blogging to: a cool and quiet house

reading: The Devil Riding by Valerie Wilson Wesley (a Tamara Hayle mystery)
and
How to Talk Like a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter ~ audio book read by Elizabeth White with the 1st chapter read by Ann Coulter

Parting Shot:

H/T

Even MORE Gunshot Residue!

2011-07-31T11:42:00.001-05:00

Mr WK and I hit the outdoor range Saturday with long guns and handguns. It wasn't supposed to be quite as hot and humid. Coulda fooled me. There were a few stray breezes which were wonderful so I suppose that's what they meant. What saved the day was a fellow shooter who already had a Vornado fan goin' lent us the fan on a stick he keeps at the range to cool his barrel. I'm sure we wouldn't have stayed as long as we did if he hadn't done that. So two more things to pack for the next next time. I think we'll be going to the range more often now because of that. Don't know why WE didn't think of that!

The range property uses well water and periodically one of the us would go over and spend some time sluicing down arms, face and head with the cold water. It felt so good and for several minutes you didn't even have to stand in front of the fan to be somewhat comfortable.

When we first arrived I gathered targets and the staple gun and trudged up to the 300 yard range then worked my way down, putting targets up at the 200, 100 and 25 yard range.

Mr WK has been studyin' up on our Leupold Mark 4 M1-16x scope with a mil dot reticule. It has 140 MOA elevation adjustments and 45 MOA windage adjustments. Neither of us has ever used a scope like this and Mr WK spent quite a bit of time when we arrived scoping out some lines he drew that were spaced certain widths apart down the center of a piece of copy paper at 100 yards. He was experimenting with how moving the elevation adjustments corresponded to the mil dots on the reticule and how many clicks you have to make to move it a particular distance.

We also worked a bit on trying to narrow down the 150 gn bullet load for the .308 to either Varget or Benchmark. As in other tests, both were about the same although the Benchmark seems to have a slight lead. Further testing is in order!

Mr WK exercised his skill on all the targets at various ranges I put up earlier including the gong at 200 yards. I wasn't feeling as accurate even with the cool well water and fans so kept to the 200 yard gong and things at 100 yards.

Later a fellow shooter brought out some hedge apples he'd been saving and put 'em up at 100 yards. I'd had the scope off my carbine for months now, concentrating on CQB with the red dot. So we decided to use Mr WK's carbine. We replaced the old Bushmaster upper with an LMT as the old upper didn't have an M4 feed ramp and wouldn't play well with some of our ammo. However, the trigger on the Bushmaster lower leaves something to be desired. So for shootin' the hedge apples with ballistic tipped bullets we put my S&W M&P 15T lower on it and it worked a treat! Gotta love the AR platform just for that!

The only time we broke out the handguns was to let a fellow shooter and new club member shoot my XDm.

We had a great time and got a lot done. As it looks like this 'unprecedented' heat wave is going to continue we'll mostly go back next weekend ... with fans, guns and ammo.

blogging to: a cool and quiet house

reading: The Devil's Only Friend by Mitchell Bartoy (a Pete Caudill mystery)
and
How to Talk Like a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter ~ audio book read by Elizabeth White with the 1st chapter read by Ann Coulter

Parting Shot:
H/T

Gunshot Residue .... Finally!

2011-07-28T19:22:00.001-05:00

I tried wearing my new Yarrow Rib socks yesterday when I ran a quick errand. They were just fine except for the 100° temperatures. Yeah, they'll be a lot better when it's a 'bit' cooler.

The 40 round ribbed cuff is finished on the first Joseph's Coat Sock. Pardon the washed-out picture. I took the photo only about an hour before sunset when the sun was low in the sky — but you can see the light and dark bands.

Now on to the stockinette leg. I like the light and dark bands of a flash that the cuff's got goin' on. I hope the stockinette looks as good, otherwise I'll be froggin' back to the cuff and doin' the entire leg in a rib. Unless you really get close and look at the knitting the individual colors, which are 2½-3 stitches wide aren't that noticeable. The dark and light bands are more pronounced but you can see lighter and darker dashes within each band. Although these are cotton socks, the colors are more winter / fall than spring / summer. The dark and light bands are the same width but the darker bands carry more weight so the sock at this point has an overall darker tone.

Wednesday evening, we had our monthly Women's IDPA match at Godfrey's Ranges in Junction City, KS. Again, we had only six women and two of those were newish, having shot only one match a couple of months ago. A couple of our regulars weren't there but it was still fun. It was the first time I'd shot, let alone a match in almost three weeks. It's not been a very shooty summer so far. For most of this month, either the temperatures and / or the heat index has been either near or over 100°.

Anyway, with the help of a couple of the shooters, we got most if not all of the shooters and stages on video. I'll be labeling the individual videos and compiling each stage into a movie over the next several days. I think I was doing OK, until the last stage. There were four threat targets and as you advance on them, it was one to the body and one to the head. I did all to the body until the last one when what the SO was shouting finally sunk in. Oh, well. It was still fun!

blogging to: a cool and quiet house

reading: High Lonesome Road by Betsy Thornton (a Chloe Newcombe mystery)
and
How to Talk Like a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter ~ audio book read by Elizabeth White with the first chapter read by Ann Coulter

Parting Shot: "What we're trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget. We're trying to save life on this planet as we know it today." ~ Nancy Pelosi 7/28/11

Quote Source

FO! Yarrow Rib Socks Are Off the Needles!

2011-07-26T21:20:00.001-05:00

Somehow another one bites the dust just doesn't say it the way I wanted but it is true. Another pair off the needles. All the ends woven in and 'everything'.

Stats:

Pattern: Yarrow Rib from Nancy Bush's book, Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Sockotta from the Plymouth Italian Collection ~ colorway #32
Needles: 2.5 mm Suzanne's rosewood dpns for everything but the heel and 2mm Clover bamboo dpns for the short row heel
Based on the weight of the socks 3.1 oz / 89 gr and the cost of the yarn (purchased in June 07 ~ $8.95 for 100 gr) the cost of these socks are $7.97.

I have a tiny ball left that weighs 8 gr and is approximately 35 yards long. WoW! That's how I like to come out on my sock yarn!

I like the way these socks fit and look. I love the way the short row heel is different from the rest of the sock. It's kinda subtle — it's more of a texture change than a color change.

So now I'm working away on my Joseph's Coat Socks. I've knit this pattern in wool numerous times but this will be the first time in cotton for Nancy Bush's (do I ever seem to knit anyone else's patterns?) Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock with Dutch Heel from her book Knitting Vintage Socks. The 40 round cuff is just over halfway finished. The colors that on the needle are all lined out like crayons in a box are more smooshed together when knit. I do see a pattern emerging. Notice in the photo at the link that all the dark colors are together followed by (or visa-versa) all the lighter colors? That light and dark band I think will spiral around the leg — at least on the ribbing. What happens when it gets to the stockinette; don't know. If I don't like it this will turn into a ribbed sock.

As I'm using 2mm (size 0 US) dpns, I only have a couple of inches of sock knit. I'll get more goin' on and then take a photo.

blogging to: a cool and quiet house

reading: Death Toll by Jim Kelly (a Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and Detective Sergeant George Valentine mystery)
and
America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin ~ audio book read by Sarah Palin

Parting Shot:

And All is Well

2011-07-23T18:03:00.008-05:00

Around half of the foot on the second Yarrow Rib Sock is compete. 21 rounds down and 24 more to go. As more than half of the stitches on each round of the foot are stockinette (all knitting) it goes quickly.

I've got a half a dozen rounds finished on the cuff of the first Joseph's Coat Sock. It's not a priority. It's the low sock on the current WIP (Work In Progress) totem pole.

I have begun to hunt around in a half-hearted kind of way for yarn and a pattern in my stash that's suitable for a lace scarf for myself. I have a large stash of stock yarn but not enough of any one color for a scarf but as far as lace or fingering weight yarn in the non-sock stash there's not much. I've got some leftover lace weight from a couple of projects, one a barn-red lace weight but it's more my SIL's color than mine. Besides I may make a hat to match the scarf I made for one of my SIL's friends one of these days. The other is the leftover lace weight from the first lace shawl I ever made.

Although all the leftovers are marked, divided and wound and it wouldn't take much to use them, it would take some planning color-wise and I don't want to put that much thought right now into this project.

I also have these merging color hanks from Strickwear in the cape cod colorway but it would require even more prep as these aren't wound or divided.

I picked up 3 hanks of Classic Elite Inca Alpaca in a wine / cranberry which would go great with my dark gray winter coat and my black suede jacket but it's not lace weight. That's not to say I can't do lace with it. It would be warm and a bit more practical for everyday winter wear. Hmmmm

I'll have to cogitate on this a bit more and look at some lace patterns which I haven't done yet.

As to the job front; nothing. As I said, now that I've made the decision and started the ball rolling I want things to happen, NOW! If things are moving and I can see movement I don't mind [sometimes] if the movement is slow. I have a more difficult time waiting when it looks like nothing is happening. If I can't poke it to wake it up and make it go I want to see what happens if I push a bit in a different direction. At least my resumé has already been updated.

blogging: to a cool and quiet house

reading: Death Toll by Jim Kelly (a Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and Detective Sergeant George Valentine mystery)
and
America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin ~ audio book read by Sarah Palin

Parting Shot:

H/T

Joseph's Coat Socks

2011-07-22T23:25:00.003-05:00

I've cast on for another stoplight knitting sock. The yarn is Fortissima Color Cotton. I'm calling these my Joseph's Coat Socks. I like how the colors line up on the needle like crayons in a box. I'm only a few rounds into the sock. I wonder what it's going to look like knit up?

I don't have the patience but it would fun to experiment with different needle sizes and patterns until you came up with the combination that would line up the same colors on each round. At the very best you'd have narrow vertical stripes. Right up there would be a spiral of narrow vertical stripes. But as I'm not going to do that I'll have to take what happens, or frog it.

I started it so I would have something to knit on should I have to passenger or drive somewhere while the second Yarrow Rib Sock is undergoing it's short row heel. But that turned out not to be necessary. The short row heel is done and I didn't have to go anywhere.

A downside to these new socks is that they are cotton so no elasticity in wearing or more importantly right now, in knitting. Secondly, I'm using the needles I dislike so much when I knit the short row heel, 2mm bendy bamboo dpns. So a bit of a downer but the yarn is very soft and has no body whatsoever. Bendy yarn and bendy needles are more OK than bendy needles and no-bendy yarn, which is what the Sockotta is.

As I said, the short row heel on the second Yarrow Rib Socks, is finished and I've established the foot rounds. It was a bit of a slog but it's done. I decreased down to nine stitches and then slowly work back up. It always seems quicker going down, losing a stitch on each row and it seems to take forever (which is where the slog part comes in) going the other way. The row gets longer every row I knit as I add one stitch on each row but it gets me closer to being done with the short row heel and these &^$#@!! bendy 2mm needles!

And amazingly, Again! It looks just like this photo of the first sock!

I'm not knitting on the Joseph's Coat Socks. I mainly wanted to get them started so if I need to pick-up and go I have something to pick up and go with.

We got boolits delivered today. I'm sure the mail person began cursing me from the moment she saw the boxes. She struggled them into one of the large compartments on the mailbox wad 2 houses down.

A crocheting newbie but experienced gunnie friend is coming into town Saturday afternoon to look for yarn for a project. At least I know we'll both be responsible for our own safety. Can I tell you how much that rocks!?

blogging to: a cool and quiet house

reading: The Brothers of Baker Street by Michael Robertson (a mystery_
and
America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin ~ audio book read by Sarah Palin

Parting Shot:

Workin' It

2011-07-20T22:45:00.001-05:00

The second Yarrow Rib Sock is rolling along nicely. The leg is almost done. It looks a lot like this photo, which is a picture of the cuff and leg of the first sock. Ever the optimist, I could be looking at finished pair of socks in less than a week ... or so.

That means I better get cracking on what's next for stoplight knitting and maybe other knitting. I've got nothin' I'm dying to knit or with with. I may pull out one of the yarns that I considered for my next sock but chose the purple and gray Sockotta instead. Now that it's been over a week and I've settled into the Sockotta, I'm not all afroth to knit with wool right away.

But I am getting hankering to knit a pretty lace scarf for the winter for me. As I am going back to work in some aspect, having a pretty, showoff lacy but warm scarf would be kinda neat. The only showoff scarf I have now is this fuzzy one. One of the cool things about this one is that the ends are pointy. It's not particularly warm and being fun fur it sheds. But non-knitters think it's cool because it's fuzzy and buried in all the fuzz are iridescent flecks reminiscent of Peacock feathers. So a pretty lacy scarf for me may be my couch knitting. Hmmm

Finish time on the sock also depends on if we do either or both of the two IDPA matches coming up in the next few days. It's still really hot here, temps around 100° with heat indices at 110°+. The match time at Corndodger Station has been moved to 9am, even though it's supposed to be cooler that day with highs around 95° and heat indices between 105° and 110°. Oh, yeah. BIG improvement. Especially on a range where none of the bays have shade yet as they're only a little over year old.

blogging to: a cool and quiet house

reading: The Brothers of Baker Street by Michael Robertson (a mystery)
and
America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin ~ audio book read by Sarah Palin

Parting Shot:

Half an FO! is Better Than None

2011-07-19T13:29:00.001-05:00

The first Yarrow Rib Sock is complete. I've even woven in all the ends. I've cast on for the mate and the 20 round cuff on the second sock is done. I've even got a few rounds knit on the leg.

The first sock took 40 days. This was strictly a stoplight knitting project until I finished my SIL's second sock (down to the toe decreases, anyway) a week ago. I wasn't much past the cuff on the first sock when I began concentrating on it full time. So in just over a week, I finished it.

As to the job front, I filled out more forms and I have one more on-line test to take. My advisor asked my thoughts on working full-time in Topeka. WoW! I don't know if she was just expanding the search criteria (which I'd already told her I would be open to) or if she has something already! I'd would have preferred to stay temporary, part-time or contract work for a while, but if it's the right position for me. I'll take it.

The good thing about a job in Topeka is most of my IDPA weekday shooting is there. If I have all my gear in my vehicle, dash out the door on the dot of 5pm once a month and grab a burger to eat on the way, I can probably still make it in time to shoot at the Women's IDPA match in Topeka. Even if I miss the first stage, I can shoot the other stages. For me, shooting at that match is more about supporting the other women, not me shooting IDPA.

blogging to a cool and quiet house

reading: Hardcastle's Obsession by Graham Ison (an Ernest Hardcastle mystery)
and
America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin ~ audio book read by Sarah Palin

Parting Shot:
H/T

Well There Ya Go

2011-07-17T22:18:00.003-05:00

Round and Round I Go

2011-07-17T16:30:00.000-05:00

The first Yarrow Rib Sock is coming down to the home stretch. The foot is over half finished with 33 rounds knit. I'll try it on again at 50 rounds but I think that'll be it or very close. Now what toe? My standard is a variation on a French toe which involves grafting the last dozen or so stitches together or a round toe which means I decrease down to the last 4 stitches and then draw them together. I guess I'll see what sounds best when I get there.

That's one of the great things about knitting socks. You have so many choices on each part, right up until the final stitches.

All of my 2.5mm rosewood Suzanne's dpns are in socks. I have ONE spare needle! Eight of them have my SIL's Poem's Socks on them and the other five (4 in the sock and 1 to knit with) are with / in my Yarrow Rib Sock.

Why is that important? I'm thinking about casting on for another sock, not a stoplight knitting sock, maybe a lace or cabled sock for myself. As I don't have full spare set of lighter colored dpns I'll have to use the ebony ones, which don't work well with dark yarns! If I had to I could transfer at least one of my SIL's socks to ebony needles but I have enough lighter yarn that I don't think that will be necessary.

I'm kinda getting a hankering for doing a lace shawl / scarf for myself as it's been awhile since I've done one. It's been almost a year since I finished the red one for my SIL's friend but I may wait until fall. I don't mind a bit of wool sock dangling over or on my lap but it's a whole different issue when it's a wool shawl or scarf, even if it is lace.

blogging to: a cool, quiet house

reading: Erased From Memory by Diana O'Hehir (a Carla Day mystery)
and
America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin ~ audio book read by Sarah Palin

Parting Shot: You know you're a gun nut ...
H/T

Half Down — Half to Go

2011-07-16T11:00:00.000-05:00

The short row heel on the first Yarrow Rib Sock is finally finished. It wasn't blood, sweat or tears but a slog. I don't like knitting short row heels but I like the way they look in a sock with self-patterned yarn. So I persevered and now it's done. The end result was YO hole in one side [how did THAT get there] — the side with the bitter end from the heel yarn so I can fix that. As always I ended up having to pick up a stitch on either side of the heel because the gap is just too big for my liking.

Well anyway, I am now onto the foot stitches. And BTW, a short row heel is not for stoplight knitting. The 2mm dpns are way to bendy and much attention has to be paid to knitting with them. Not to mention doing the slip-wrap-slip stitch dance at the end of every row while juggling a stitch marker. [sigh]. Yeah, I can't wait for the short row heel on the mate.

For some reason I always think that once the heel is done and I've got the foot rounds established that the sock is half done, no matter how many cuff and leg stitches. So in my book, the first sock is half done.

It's been very hot and humid these past several days. We didn't get to the range last weekend and probably not this weekend either. The heat index is over 100° and it's not a dry heat. Not much fun.

I've got some 147 gn Precision Delta 9mm bullets coming in sometime this coming week so we can amuse ourselves loading up a lot of 9mm brass. I need to save some of it because I also have 115 gn PD bullets coming in ... sometime. They are back ordered. They were much cheaper than I could find anywhere else so I'll wait.

blogging to: a cool and quiet house

reading: Erased From Memory by Diana O'Hehir (a Carla Day mystery)
and
America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin ~ audio book read by Sarah Palin

Parting Shot:

H/T

Yes I Did

2011-07-13T19:50:00.000-05:00

The leg on my Yarrow Rib sock is within six rounds (or so) of being completed. Then it's on to the short row heel! A 20 round cuff and the leg will have 65 rounds.

The short row formula I use is the one Lucy Neatby used on her Mermaid Socks in her Cool Socks, Warm Feet book. 65% of the total stitches end up in the heel. According to the formula for a 72 stitch cast on, there should be 47 heel stitches and 25 instep stitches. I'm going to change that up just a bit with 48 heel stitches and 24 instep stitches so I can keep a multiple of six stitches on the top of foot stitches so it won't mess up the six-stitch Yarrow Rib pattern. That way I can have it run down unbroken from the leg onto the instep and all the way to the toe decreases. I'll do my standard stockinette for the bottom of the foot stitches.

As to the short row heel, I'll drop down from 2.5mm dpns to 2mm dpns and the heel will be garter stitch. I've done both stockinette and the more common garter stitch short row heels and from what I can remember the garter stitch heel is easier to knit but more difficult to fix where as a stockinette short row heel is a real pain to knit but way easier to fix.

The garter stitch heel looks really different from the stockinette ribbed pattern so it stands out more. Apparently I'm going for the WoW! factor in the heel, which no one is even going to see. That's me. A secret WoW! factor!

One of my daily female gun blogger reads is Looking for Lissa. This past weekend Lissa shot her first IDPA match. Go and read! Yea!!! Lissa!! You! Go! Girl!!!

Today I drove into Topeka for the 'interview' and to take the test the system wouldn't let me take yesterday. They let me fill out the employment forms so I guess I'm good to go. It depends now I suppose on my background check. As the KBI cleared me for CCW and I haven't been acting up, I don't think I'll have any problems. I may have to take a drug test, so no poppy seed muffins for me in the near future. Hmm. I wonder if Remifemin which has black cohash in it will give a false positive on anything. If that happens I just take the box with me in case.

blogging to: Memories 89 1

Parting Shot:

Moving Right Along

2011-07-12T17:25:00.000-05:00

As I've said often in the past it's amazing how much knitting you get done when you're only working on ONE project. The leg on the first Yarrow Rib Sock is around half done, depending how long I want it. I've got 40 rounds knit on it now. Combined with a 20 round cuff, it's coming along. I'd say at least another 30 rounds on it.

I've already decided that I'm going to do a short row heel. This is a self patterned yarn which lends itself nicely to that kind of heel.

Once the heel is done and the foot is well on it's way, then I'll cast on or at least start thinking about the next sock.

I took two of the pre-employment tests this afternoon on-line; one for MS Word and one for Excel. I was also supposed to take a proof reading test but it said I needed to update my flash player. Before you start the tests, it checks your systems to see if you have the proper software to take the tests. I need to upgrade Java which I did. After I'd downloaded and installed the upgraded flash player it said I'd already taken the proofreading test. I e-mailed the center and I'll be able to take it Wednesday when I go in for my interview. I have a feeling that happens a lot.

So we'll see how it all comes out tomorrow. I am hoping I can jump right in and they have something for me right away. Now that I've decided to do it and have got the ball rolling I want to get moving.

I got my permanent crown this morning. No biggie. It's in. I'm Queen for a day ... or something.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Havana Blue by Leonardo Padura (a Mario Conde mystery)
and
America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin ~ audio book read by Sarah Palin

Parting Shot:

from An NC Gun Blog

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

2011-07-11T20:49:00.002-05:00

Both of my SIL's Poem's Socks are done down to the toe decreases. I'm not even going to weave in the ends at the cuff until I have her try them on in case I have to completely frog both socks. I am a dyed in the wool process knitter but I really hope I don't have to frog and reknit both socks!

My Yarrow Rib socks which are also my stoplight knitting socks will now get all the attention. I really want cast on for another pair wool stockinette socks. I'm going to try to hold off for a few days. I do want to get further along with these socks. I love the colors and the ribbing is OK and the yarn is OK and I think that's the problem. It's OK just not great.

I'm embarking on another life change. I'm going back to work. I quit my last job just over five years ago. We're still doing OK but we want to have a little more financial freedom. At this point, I'm going for either part-time or contract work with one of those places that supply office weenies. I'm going to see how busy I stay with the contract stuff and how much I can make. If a permanent full-time position comes up that fits, I'll probably go with it. If it's in Topeka, I don't think it will impact my range time all that much as most of our shooting is done in the Topeka area in the evenings and on the weekend. On evenings that we have a match, I'll take clothes to change into and if I'm carrying my match gun I'll just have the range bag with my ears and match ammo.

This is going to present a carry challenge. I got into this while I was not working and my current work clothes wardrobe isn't very carry friendly. At least I have a decent pocket carry gun, the Sig Sauer P238. I have a tiny Galco IWB holster that works great. I'm going to get more dress pants with belt loops and front pockets. At least with the P238's tiny mags I can fit at least 1 or 2 into a front pocket. The more challenging part is going to be summer work / carry friendly tops; not tucked in—loose but not sloppy. Fine line there. I normally do an appendix carry but I've got some summer weight jackets that I can do a behind the hip carry. So we'll see.

If I was going to one company full time I might be able to get away with nice cargo pants and an un-tucked polo shirt but not when I don't know where I'll end up. I may leave my tactical knife and flashlight in my purse but leaving my gun in my vehicle or in my purse is NOT an option.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: We The Living by Ayn Rand
and
America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin ~ audio book read by Sarah Palin

Parting shot:

Too Long But Not So Far

2011-07-09T18:50:00.000-05:00

I apologize for the long absence. Been busy then not busy then busy and well you know how it goes. I keep thinkin' I need to post on my blog and then it's been too long and I just don't want to list what we've done and it would sound like one of those Christmas letter things. So yeah, nothing.

Short, long story. I've been knitting. SIL's second sock from the Wisdom Yarn Poem's Sock is not far from being complete. The foot is not from from finished—just over 20 rounds to go on it; a bit father along than in this photo taken a few days ago.

Not much progress on my purple Socketta sock. I love knitting with a nice wool. But once I finish the foot on this one sock and put them aside until she can try them on, I won't be touching that nice wool all the time and can concentrate on the Plymouth Socketta, which is nice, just not as nice as good wool yarn. I really like the colors. It's over 100° outside now so maybe the wool socks aren't ideal for this temperature but they will make great winter socks.

We've also been shooting and reloading. We've shot a couple of outside IDPA matches including one with a new club that not so much broke away from an existing club but was spawned by that club. The new club's matches are timed so that you won't have to choose which club to shoot with on a particular evening, unless you want to drive for over an hour and shoot indoors. I don't care how fabulous an indoor range is, shooting outside is always preferable. And we have access to a really nice outdoor range.

Mr WK is still nailing down a .308 load for the Hornady 150 gn fmj bt spire point bullets we have. It's now down to Varget or Benchmark. We'll just have to keep on testing!

blogging to: a cool and quiet house

reading: We The Living by Ayn Rand
and
America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin ~ audio book read by Sarah Palin

Parting Shot:

Home on the Range

2011-06-19T21:04:00.001-05:00

Mr WK and I spent almost all day Saturday at the outdoor range. We'd brought both .30 calibers, both carbines, both 1911 .45s, 3 9mms and the semi-auto shotgun. Only the shotgun never left the case. Oh, and a whole bunch of ammo!

Mr WK spent all his time at the high-power range at the bench rest area. The .308 loads that wouldn't group at all last time did just fine. I still think it was because it was so humid and I was so uncomfortable that I couldn't concentrate although at the time I thought I was concentratin' to beat the band. Apparently not. Mr WK did better on his groups, too.

We'd only put paper targets up at the 100 and later I put one up at the 25 yard range. Although they'd cut the wheat (yes, really) and the grass at the 200 and 300 yards targets I didn't relish the climb. Our 200 and 300 yard targets are uphill and far away.

Mr WK was very pleased Again! how accurate his inexpensive Mossberg 30-06 bolt rifle is. It was an impulse buy at Dick's Sporting Goods a couple of years ago and was just over $300 at the time. It's only long gun we own with wood furniture. All the rest are garbed in 'evil black'.

I just LOVE folks that buy ammo with brass cases and don't reload. Really, I do. At the Women on Target Event a few weeks ago we scored ALL the .223 brass. No one else reloaded it and I asked ... several times. So that was around 650 pieces and yesterday, there was a small group and I scored over 250 pieces from them.

And with all the stuff we shot, we have quite a task ahead. It's all had the initial clean and polish and about 1/3 of it has been re-sized and de-primed and polished again to remove the lube. Now we can begin the really, really fun part ... case gauge each piece, trim, if necessary, if trimmed then de-burred and chamfered. Each piece also gets the primer pocket cleaned and as the folks yesterday were shooting NATO ammo (or equivalent) quite a bit of it will need to be swaged to remove the primer crimp. Thank goodness for our Dillon swager. It's paid for itself over and over again!

When we get at least several hundred prepped, we can FINALLY! begin to reload so it can all go BANG! one more time. We keep all of our 'plinkin' .223 ammo on stripper clips and all of them in ubiquitous green metal ammo cans. The special loads, with fancier and more expensive projectiles such as those with ballistics tips which are great for water bottles and hedge apples or the heavier projectiles such as 75 gn Hornady go in the plastic boxes as we don't shoot very many of those.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd (a Bess Crawford mystery)
and
Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin ~ audio book read by Sarah Palin

Parting Shot:

Sock Building

2011-06-15T17:21:00.003-05:00

I can't believe how quickly my SIL's sock is coming along. The pattern is Nancy Bush's Gentleman's Plain Winter Socks with Dutch heel from her book Knitting Vintage Socks. I've knit this pattern three times now and I love each rendition. The yarn is Poems Sock from Wisdom Yarns. The colorway is one of those that gradually changes colors and the color bands are wide. This one has a sage green, slate blue, a reddish brown and cranberry. It's going to be a great winter sock for jeans.

The 40 round cuff is complete as is the 65 round leg. The heel flap is within just a few rows of being finished. The heel turn won't take very long, a dedicated hour or so and a strong half an hour to pick up the gusset stitches and get the foot stitches established.

I'm going to knit this all the way down to about where the toe decreases will start. If I haven't seen her by then so she can try it on, I'll stop and cast on for the mate. That way I can adjust the foot length if necessary. The toe decrease rounds won't take very long at all.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading:
Treasure Well by Max Brand (a western)
and
Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin ~ audio book read by Sarah Palin

Parting Shot:

In The Key of Low

2011-06-13T23:25:00.000-05:00

That's been the theme around here.

We've been to the outdoor range a few times and tested some .308 loads and a new .40 load. I put a lot of 9mm downrange with my Glock 26. Figured if I'm going to summer carry it I better make sure I can still shoot with it. Either I've improved a lot thanks to my informal shooting coach or this gun has somehow improved all by itself.

We shot some .308 test rounds we'd loaded in early May—Hornady 165 gn bt sp interlock projectile with 41 gn of Benchmark. Mr WK had 1" groups at 100 yards. The day we shot it was hot and very humid so I'm sure his concentration was not what it could have been. We have some of those left so we'll try again.

Mr WK has been on the hunt for months now trying find a more accurate load for his S&W M&P .40. The accuracy is OK but not as good as it could / should be. He loves to shoot it and likes how it shoots and is convinced that it's not the gun, we just need to find the right load for it. My informal shooting coach gave us some Hodgdon Longshot to try. It's a slow burning powder but the velocity is high so the loads are hot. We loaded up 20 rounds of 7.5 gn and 20 of 7.7 gn with a Ranier Ballistics plated 165 gn plated fp projectile. We tested in the S&W 4006 and it didn't like it but it's hot. We'll try it next time in the M&P.

The first Saturday in June I participated in the NRA's Women on Target shooting clinic. It was the first time I'd ever been to one of these events. I helped out on the hi-power range with my S&W M&P 15T AR15. It was a blast! The women were fantastic. Many of the women brought their daughters. About a 1/3 of the women had never held or shot any kind of firearm before. Many were surprised at how little recoil there was and how much fun it was to shoot an evil black rifle! Only a few who were thin and had little muscle didn't like it. It does help to have some padding.

Of the four AR style rifles, I had the only optic, an inexpensive red dot. The other three were open or iron sights. One was a 20" target rifles and the other three including mine were carbines.

I'm really looking forward to next year's event and will take a more active role in the behind the scenes prep leading up to next year's clinic.

As to the knitting, things have really been rolling along. I finished my Sunset Socks. The second sock took only 20 days. I cast on for the first one on 9/15/10 and it was my stoplight / passenger knitting sock for months. By mid-February this was the only small project I had on the needles and it just flew! As you can see I started the second sock (on the right) with the yarn at the other end of the ball. Not as neat a transition from foot to leg but that's OK. I love the way they look and fit!

pattern: Nancy Bush's Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock with Dutch heel from her book Knitting Vintage Socks.
yarn: Zauberball by Schoppel Wolle. The colorway is 1536.
needles: 2.5mm Suzanne dpns
amount of yarn used: almost ¾ of 100 gr hank
based on the cost of the yarn and the weight of the socks (2.3 oz / 67 gr) the socks cost $13.37

I've cast on for two more; one for me and one for my SIL. The one for my SIL is the same pattern. The yarn is Poems Sock by Wisdom Yarn. I picked up 2 skeins around a year ago with the intention of socks for her. Other than the greens and blues you see there it also has some cranberry and brown in it. So far I've knit the the 40 round cuff and 17 rounds of the stockinette leg on the bottom. As with the Zauerball, the yarn goes thin and thicker and the thicker pieces are a bit splitty so I've really got to be careful. This will most likely not be a stoplight knitting sock for that reason.

So, I had to cast on for another sock. The one for me is again! another Nancy Bush pattern from the same book, Knitting Vintage Socks. This is the Yarrow Socks pattern. Just a very simple rib. The yarn is one I picked up four years ago. It's Sockotta from the Plymouth Italian Collection. I love the purples and grays. That's the 20 round cuff and six rounds of leg.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Treasure Well by Max Brand (a western)

Parting Shot:

Sock It To Me

2011-05-28T22:54:00.000-05:00

The second Sunset Sock is rolling along. I finished the 40 round cuff Monday and a few days later the leg was complete. I finished heel yesterday and picked up the gusset stitches this morning. I have a half a dozen rounds done on the foot and depending on knit time it may be done in two or four days.

Earlier in the week I was still not feelin' any desire to root around looking for another sock project for me, Mr WK or my SIL to knit in tandem with the end of my Sunset Sock or even as the next project. But I will have to get on the stick pretty quickly.

And that's the question. Who to knit for will in part determine what yarn I will use and what pattern. For my SIL or myself, it's wide open — lace, cables, any pattern considered and any color. For Mr WK — not so much. For my SIL's socks, the amount of yarn I have in any one color in my stash will limit her color selection. Like Mr WK she usually takes all of two 50 gr skeins or hanks and depending on the pattern, some or quite a bit of the third. Quite a bit of my sock yarn stash was purchased with socks for me in mind. As with Mr WK when I'm going to knit my SIL a pair of socks, I usually have her or him in mind when I purchase a specific yarn so I can get that extra skein or hank.

And anything in a hank will need to be wound. Most of the yarns for Mr WK or my SIL will need to be wound. I can't just pluck it out of the stash bin and set to. Also, the sock I'm about to finish up is my stoplight / passenger knitting. The next project, if it is to replace the current SIP (Sock-In-Progress) needs to be a simple knit — no cables and no lace. It has to be an easy rib or stockinette.

I am, however, enjoying just simply knitting so much, all stockinette, that I may just do another pair for me, using a patterned yarn. If I feel I want to be more challenged I can wind something for my SIL or Mr WK and and do something more complicated.

I'm down to 2 active WIP's knitting-wise and am only reading one book. Slacker!

blogging to: Memories 89 1

reading: Single Tree by Gary D Svee (a western)

Parting Shot:

Half an FO is Better Than None

2011-05-20T12:42:00.000-05:00

The first Sunset Sock is finished. As I've said numerous times before, it's amazing how quickly a project rolls when that's the only one you're working on. I love the fit, feel and how the color morphs from pumpkin orange to deep purple and back. If I start the second sock right where the yarn stopped for the first one I'll be just a bit off in color placement from one sock to the other. Most likely, unless you view both socks side by side you wouldn't notice a difference.

However, it might be interesting, since I like fraternal socks [one of the pleasures of knitting your own] to start the mate at the other end of the yarn cake. All the same colors will be there in exactly the same order just not the same place on the socks. The raspberry strand on the top is just before the deep purple section.

The more I think about that the better I like it. Yes, I am a rebel.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: America Alone: The End Of The World As We Know It by Mark Steyn
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin (audio book)

Parting Shot:

I Can Only Knit On One At A Time Anyway

2011-05-17T22:00:00.000-05:00

When you only have ONE (or so) knitting project that you're working on things move along pretty quickly. Other than Nautical Striped Sweater which is STILL on the needles (and likely to remain so until I can work myself up to it) I have just the White Caps Afghan and my Sunset Sock on the needles. I can't remember when I had only two active WIPs (Works-In-Progress).

And right now, I've no desire to dig through my sock yarn stash or patterns to figure out what to knit next for Mr WK or my SIL. I really don't want to start any new projects now. I'm content just to knit on these two. For now.

As far as the first Sunset sock the heel is finished as are all the gusset decreases so it's just plain sailing ... er ... knitting on the foot until I'm ready for the toe decreases. And the foot is about an inch long now.

The afghan is the same as it ever was. It grows oh, so very slowly. A row knit here and there; now and again. It may or may not be done by this fall.

We've not done much shooting lately. This past Sunday our group held an IDPA Classifier at Corndodger Station in NW Kansas. The mid-May weather was decidedly chilly but dry with temperatures in the mid 40's and a NNW wind. Neither of us were ready to classify again so we just went up to help and socialize. Mr WK helped on the first stage, pasting and what-not while I ran the shot timer on the second one. We had 15 folks, most shooting their first classifier. Everyone seemed to have a great time.

It was great though just hanging out and NOT shooting. No stress. No having to remember what to do when the buzzer went off.

We were asked if we wanted to design a stage for next week's match. So Mr WK and I got busy in the second bay and got it set up. If you're not used to doing it, it takes some time to work through the shoot angles, target placement, etc. Mr WK did the graphics and I wrote the scenario. Six threat targets, 2 non-threats, 12 rounds minimum, mostly head and shoulder shots and some moving. I sent it off to one of the Match Directors this evening. I'll post it after the match.

I'm down to the last couple of hundred pages on Atlas Shrugged. Hi-lighters are really taking a beating. Really, really like this book.

blogging to: Memories 89 1

reading: America Alone: The End Of The World As We Know Its by Mark Steyn
and
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin (audio book)

Parting Shot: Paul Shanklin: The Man Who Shot Osama Bin Laden

More of the Same

2011-05-08T18:15:00.001-05:00

Mr WK's Dimples Sock is no more. The Frog Tree Alpaca yarn is great just not great for the two patterns I chose for it. Newly knit it looked like it had been worn and washed several times already. Also at 90 rounds the leg was barely 4" inches long. That pattern sucked up a lotta yarn. I think that pattern would like great with a shiny yarn that defined the stitches better.

That leaves me one UFO (the Nautical Striped Sweater, which apparently I'm not gong to wear this spring either) the White Caps Afghan and my Sunset Socks. So until I decide on a different yarn and pattern I'm just knitting on my Sunset Socks.

I still haven't addressed the twined two color pile and partial sock of Frog Tree Alpaca leftover from Mr WK's Vertical Striped Sock fiasco. I really want to reclaim that yarn but it's going to take patience and time. A lot of patience and time.

As far as my Sunset Socks go I'm on round 66 of the leg, four rounds short of the heel flap. I could start it now but I kind of like the 'neatness' of stopping or starting on a 'round' number. The pattern is the same I've knit for Glen for two socks, Nancy Bush's Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock with Dutch heel from her book Knitting Vintage Socks. So my sock has 40 round ribbed cuff will have a 70 round stockinette leg. And it fits great!

The afghan is as it ever was. Based on a finished row count of 700, it's almost 60% complete. I'm on row 417, four 350 stitch rows short of 30 14 row pattern repeats finished. I'm sticking to only knitting (or purling) one row at a time.

My spring do to list is moving along. I haven't done any more on the picnic table or chairs, except use them and the boat work is still stalled. But the pump in our tiny pond died and we took that opportunity to clean out all the slimy, stinky leaves and pump out all the stinky, green water. We got the old pump from a local pond store three years ago for $50. This time we went to Home Depot and got one for $40. It's bigger in physical size, has a little higher gph rate (190 vs 210) and a better intake screen. It also has a much longer cord so we don't have to use an extension cord to reach the outlet on the house. The very first pump for that pond was tiny, put out 170 gph, cost $62 and lasted NINE years! Now we have the pleasant tinkly sound of falling water again.

I've washed just under a half of the north side of the house with a combination of water and powdered Oxyclean. We have sky blue siding with white trim and as the north side of the house doesn't get any direct sunlight, mold grows there. I had no idea this would happen. It comes off fairly easily with just a cloth dipped into the bucket and rubbed across the fake wood grain. It really does look better. the yellowing caulking around the windows and patio on the outside is going to take some work but and a little experimentation but once I figure it out I don't think it'll be much of a problem to clean. Other than the north side, the rest of the siding is just dusty/dirty. Other than renting a power washer, I think just scrubbing with a soapy, aggressively bristled push broom will do the trick.

The windows and curtains in our bedroom have also been done. As we don't take the newspaper anymore, I 'stole' some from the recycle bin so I can do the vinegar water and newspaper polish I like to do. The newsprint ink really does polish the glass. Otherwise I'd have to depend on the freebie that ends up in our driveway every week. Most of that is the slick colored, ad paper which doesn't work for this.

I think the bird house is a no-go for this year as it's still not up but most of the morning glory seeds I planted are up. So things are going along, albeit a bit more slowly than I'd've liked.

We have a bit of a dry/warm spell coming up so I'm hoping I'll see a lot more progress on the patio furniture and the boat!

I'm really enjoying Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I'm around halfway through the book, wielding a hi-lighter and keeping a brief index on a couple pieces of notepaper. It's NOT a restful read.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: A Test of Wills by Charles Todd (an Ian Rutledge mystery)
and
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin (audio book)

Parting Shot:

Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall

2011-04-29T20:25:00.001-05:00

We haven't been out to work on Spray all week. It's been cold and rainy here. The evenings we might have, I and we shot an IDPA match instead.

The Women's only IDPA had it's third match this past Wednesday. I'm am concerned for this event. We had a pretty good turn-out for the first match, ten shooters, seven of whom had never shot an IDPA match before. The range where this is held is just outside an Army base and the second match happened to fall when a lot of soldiers had just come back from deployment so attendance was down. We had only six shooters and only one of those was newish to IDPA. This month there were no extenuating circumstances that I could see and we had the same thing, six shooters and only one newbie. If it stays at six shooters, the range can't afford to hold these events and we take over the entire range for three evening hours. Most, if not all of the match fee goes to the range. Even if they got the entire $15 with only six shooters for three hours, they could have probably made more by having it open to the public.

A couple of us are working on ways to get the word out to the husbands, boyfriends and SO's that shoot IDPA with us. Many of those women probably have little or no interest in guns or shooting. They're not anti's, they just don't have an interest. So we'll see what happens.

As far as my results other than the first stage I did pretty well, for me. I had a great time, as always. One of our "regulars' usually shoots a .22LR. She has a .40 but doesn't like the hard break. I know some tough guys that don't like a .40 for the same reason. Anyway, I brought all the 9mm's we had, along with holsters, mag holders and ammo with me. They've all shot IDPA so I had all the gear for all of them. She chose my regular gun, Springfield Armory XDm 3.8. She said she really liked it. So I ended up shooting Mr WK's S&W M&P 9L with the small palm swell. With the longer sight radius, I did much better than I normally do.

Helping that out quite a bit, the match director chose to spend the entire match on basics — which was just fine with me. For all but two of the us, this was only their first, second or third IDPA match EVER!! You can't ever go wrong by going back to the basics occasionally. The entire match was spent only six rounds loaded in two mags. So a lot of reloading from slide lock. The one other woman who has shot IDPA before this, her and are still the only two who when we press the mag release we let the empty mag just fall on the ground where it will and ignore it until the CoF (Course of Fire) is over. All the rest, grab the empty mag, extend their arm down, bend their knees a bit and try to gently drop the mag onto the concrete floor.

We had a low light stage which I always enjoy and I think the other women did also.

Thursday night we had one of our regular Thursday night matches. We had 16 shooters including one IDPA newbie and four CoFs. Again, other than the first stage, I did very well shootin' the XDm.

This afternoon after I mowed the lawn, I was able to scratch off my list one of my outdoor to-do items! I was going to give our very overgrown Forsythia bush a haircut. It hasn't bloomed much the last couple of years and I believe it blooms in the spring on new growth from the previous summer. It's right next to the house and it provides a nice screen from our neighbors to the north. I'd planned on cutting away just the branches that were touching the house and some otherwise light pruning. I ended up cutting a huge chunk away and now a person can pass quite easily between the bush and the house. The only place it's really noticeable is our patio and we still have plenty of screening. I probably cut out an eighth of its total mass, most of which consisted of outrigger growth. Anyone who has a large Forsythia and has looked under it's skirts knows what I'm talking about. So that's done for the year. Over the next several years, I plan to cut it down to size by eliminating quite a bit of that outrigger growth so it can start again. If I keep doing that it'll be a beautiful yellow bush every spring!

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin (the audio book)

Parting Shot: "... unhappiness is the hallmark of virtue. If a man is unhappy, really, truly unhappy, it means that he is a superior sort of person." ~ James Taggart from Atlas Shrugged

I believe that quote is the Liberal mantra.

We Now Return You to Your 'Regular' Programing

2011-04-25T17:30:00.000-05:00

We got word the late last week that the six night extension was not going to be needed. So Sunday night / Monday morning, as per the original plan, was Mr WK's last night. Today after sleeping in and a nap things will revert to "normal" around here. YIPPEE!!

The weather hasn't been conducive to priming patio furniture or polishing on fiberglass. I was able to get out to Spray Saturday evening and sand some more on the teak slides on the cabin top. They are almost finished. I also finished polishing the inside of the cockpit, by far the largest area on the top of the boat that needed to be done. Now things will progress more quickly. Other than the sides of the cabin roof most of the rest of the smooth gelcoat on the deck is the narrow parts between the non-skid. So, yeah, I'm still very far behind. It's good that there's not that much that needs to be done this year—as far as big projects, anyway

At least the wooden patio furniture [if I put it all on the patio there would be no room to use it] that sits on the grass isn't on a time-table. As it's all got at least one coat of a good oil-based primer on it and between coats of primer and paint we can still use it. I really want to get it all done before the hot and humid weather gets here and I won't be so inclined to sit outside and paint.

As to the knitting, it seems to be moving backwards instead of forward. I tinked two rows of 350 stitches each on the White Caps Afghan. Yes, I screwed up again. And no, overall, no one would have noticed or cared but I did. But it's all back on track now.

Mr WK's Dimples Socks are another thing. I "fixed" an extra stitch error when I couldn't determine where the extra stitch came from with a k2tog. But a round or so later I have another one. So I tinked back to the first error and a several rounds beyond that one so I could fix it properly. When I got back to what I thought of as a good stopping point I counted and I'd gained two stitches. Well, I'm not going to sweat two stitches. At least it makes the pattern come out even but I'll be counting on the knit even rounds in the future, where I suspect it happened. Yes, another case of no one but me would know or care. But get enough of these and it will be noticeable. It's all back on track now, too and I've reknit what I tinked.

It makes me wonder sometimes, if I never had to frog or tink, what future projects would I have completed or be knitting on.

I've started reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand again. I started it a few years ago as part of a read-along. When the read-along went south when most of the participants were booted from not one but two knitting fora for being too Conservative* I kept it up but was writing this long, detailed book report on every chapter which really slowed down the reading. I was reluctant to stop with the book report but eventually decided I'd never finish the book if I didn't just read it. Which is what I'm doing now — reading it for enjoyment. And I am enjoying the read. I have no particular plans to see the movie. For me most of the time the book is way better than the movie. When it finally comes to TV I may see it then or not.

I've read all the Harry Potter books after they were all out but I've no desire to ever see any of the movies. Yes, I am a bit strange.

* the second banning wasn't such a big deal — just unexpected and bit sad

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

from 4/11/11 post

Knit, Purl, Polish and Prime

2011-04-19T14:30:00.002-05:00

I'm moving slowly along on my Sunset Socks and the White Caps Afghan and a bit more quickly on Mr WK's Dimples Socks. I've reknit and then some on the leg I frogged back to the cuff a few days ago. This pattern seems to eat up the yarn and advance round counts but doesn't seem to provide as much fabric. I've knit 57 rounds and have just under 3" of leg. On some socks, I'm lookin' at startin' the heel at 57 rounds!!! I may be over 100 rounds on the leg before I even think about starting the heel. It's good to be a process knitter.

As to the heel when I get there, I'm going to continue the theme of the leg and do an eye of partridge heel which is the same stitch as the leg only knit flat instead of in the round. For the last couple of socks for Mr WK I've done a Dutch heel but I'm going to revert back to my standard triangular heel turn for this pair.

As to the White Caps Afghan, as I noted in a previous blog post, I'm knitting only one 350 stitch row a day. The wrong side purl is particularly hard on my eldabows for some reason. At any rate, I've knit 412 rows which shockingly (to me) and [based on a 700 row overall length] leaves only 288 rows to knit!!! At around four feet in length it's long enough that I snuggle my legs under it when I'm knitting on it.

I only worked on Spray for a short time Monday evening. I had everything laid out to polish and I did get some polishing done before it started to sprinkle. It WAS supposed to rain big time but that's all it did. Now I wish I would have stayed but, ah well.

Today the temperature is stuck in the mid-40's. Not conducive to painting or polishing so I'm going to stay home and mow the yard. Other than Wednesday, there is rain forecast for the next week or so, some days more than others. If I do the lawn this evening, I can spend Wednesday evening (which is supposed to be dry and in the low 60's) polishing on Spray and maybe throwing some more primer on the chairs and/or the picnic table in the afternoon while Mr WK is sleeping. Everything needs at least one more coat if not two. One chair has two coats of primer from the initial go so one more coat on that chair and two more on everything else or whatever it takes to use up all the primer and then I'll be good to go for the paint.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin (an Inspector Rebus mystery)
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

Almost a Week

2011-04-17T13:10:00.001-05:00

It's been a rip-roaring time with Mr WK's current sock. I had around 50 rounds complete on the leg of the Dimples sock when I discovered a problem more than a couple of rounds back. I could have left it and pulled it to the back and no one but me would have been the wiser. I hadn't picked up the entire loop of yarn and laddered down to try to fix it. That didn't work so I decided to take the sock off the needles, frog the four or five rounds down to it but then I couldn't get it back on the needles properly. So I just frogged the entire thing back to the cuff.

So this sock has been frogged back to nothing several times, back to the cuff a few times and tinked more than I can remember. And prior to that this yarn was destined to be a hat!! Will I ever be done with the sock, let alone the yarn??!!

Ah, well. Such is the life of a process knitter. It doesn't have to be perfect but it has to look good, fit and work. I'd avoided working on it much until I could get Mr WK to try it on to make sure the cuff and leg were wide enough and would fit easily over his heel. I did before it was frogged and the fit was good. No issues at all. And as I'm not knitting 100+ stitches every round and fiddling with two colors it goes quickly. However, I think because of the pattern even 50 rounds was only a few inches long so this leg is going to have a lot of rounds.

My Sunset Sock has been getting some attention. I have a 44 round stockinette leg atop a 40 round ribbed cuff. And it fits, too. Before I started working on Spray, I took a photo of the progress. This is round 44 of the leg.

I've been trying to do one row on the White Caps Afghan every time I sit down to knit. Knitting on it continuously makes my arms ache but I seem to be able to manage one 350 stitch row every day. Slow but sure finishes the project.

We had some stormy weather come in Thursday evening. It wasn't as bad here as it was elsewhere, mostly just wind, rain and lightening. No hail and no destructive winds. It did however stop me from working on Spray Thursday night and as it rained almost all day Friday and into the evening I didn't make any progress on any of my outdoor projects. Saturday it was almost too cool to be outside so I rested up.

I went out to the boat after Mr WK left Saturday evening with the intention of if not finishing the sanding at least making a good run at it. I managed to finish both handrails, about half of one of the main hatch cabin slides and a little of the other one. You a see a bit of the before and after in the photo. I sanded everything with 60 grit to get the one coat of peeling sealer off. Once I clean the teak then I'll sand it again with finer paper for a smooth finish before I seal it.

Four days away from Spray and I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked. I'd forgotten that I'd taken the old t-shirt out of the truck that I was going to use on the boat to clean the patio furniture the other day so I had only the sleeve of one leftover from last year. I also didn't bring enough water. Spray wasn't as dirty as the last time but there were plenty of leaf debris that had drifted into the cockpit. So I didn't clean much.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin (an Inspector Rebus mystery)
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

Workin' the Plan

2011-04-14T16:20:00.003-05:00

Once a year at this time, one of the large organizations that have contracts with Mr Wk's company to maintain their equipment has their yearly peak time. Usually, it's 14 days of nights. But two days in they've applied to extend it six more nights for Mr WK and into the first two days of May for the folks on days. And this year Mr WK doesn't have anyone to run any service calls that come in during the day. So far he's been lucky there've been only a few and he's been able to get the problems fixed fairly quickly. I am praying it keeps up.

Two good things though. His night shift is now only eight hours instead of ten and with the extension, more expense dollars for us.

Meanwhile I am working through a spring chores list that would choke a horse. Usually I just work on Spray, but this year, I'm also doing some outside house and yard projects. I managed to snag a wooden picnic table from Home Depot last week. It's not exactly the style I wanted but with the metal frame rusted through on the bottom of one we've had for 16 years the entire table is unstable, unsafe and unusable. We might have been able to get a few more years out of it had we left it on the patio but the table took up almost the entire patio so it's been in the yard for the past several years.

I would have preferred one with separate benches but I couldn't find one locally. So I settled for this one. The wood is crappy and it's very heavy but for $98 it was built and assembled. This is with the first coat of an oil based primer applied. The table going to be white.

I also cleaned up the wooden Adirondack chairs and footstools I bought in August '07. All I did was prime them and one chair got only one coat of primer. Since then they've been outside in the weather. I think they held up pretty well. The one in the photo is the one with with only one coat of primer. You can see on the arms that the wood is just beginning to show through.

front ~ before

The biggest issue was the dirt, mold and mildew, mainly on the backs and bottoms of the chairs.

back ~ before

bottom ~ before

The after photos almost look like they've been freshly painted!

front ~ after

back ~ after

bottom ~ after

I also cleaned the two white resin Adirondack chairs up. Before they looked like they were ready for the trash bin. They weren't broken but were an icky greyish color with dirt and spots of mold and mildew ingrained into the "grain".

front ~ before

front slats ~ before

Now they look brand new!! Amazing what some elbow grease and a little diluted and full strength Clorox chlorine bleach will do.

front ~ after

front slats ~ after

I've been working just a bit on Spray after Mr WK leaves for his evening's fun. Monday I went out, mainly to assess what needed to be done. The cockpit was dry thanks in part to the old sponges I placed over the cockpit drains to keep out the worst of the debris that blocked them up and flooded the cockpit last year.

We put only one coat of teak sealer on last year and that didn't last. It's already peeling off. At least it's one thin coat peeling off instead of the multi-year application I dealt with last year. I've already sanded the two wood strips on either side of the cabin entrance, the piece that goes on the gas locker and about three-fourths of one of the handrails on the top. It shouldn't take much time to finish the rough sanding. Then I'll clean the teak and sand it again with a finer grit so that it feels smooth. After it dries a few days, I'll start sealing it. Meanwhile, I'll start polishing the smooth gelcoat.

Earlier in the week it looked like it might rain Wednesday evening so Tuesday evening I mowed the lawn. It only needed in spots. It grows so quickly with all the moisture this time of year that I didn't want to leave it, even a few days as it would get longer and thicker and more difficult. Our mower is older and doesn't have as much power as it had when it was newer.

It was supposed to start storming earlier today but now it's not going to do that until later this evening. I might go out and sand on the wood on Spray if the storm looks like it's not going to get here until after dark. It keeps changing so I'll make the call after Mr WK leaves.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Tampa Burn by Randy Wayne White (a Doc Ford mystery)
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

Shooty Goodness

2011-04-07T19:05:00.000-05:00

I am shocked about how long it's been since I blogged about shooting. We've been several times this past month and I suppose I was "saving" up. Yeah, whatever.

I shot my second Women's IDPA match near the end of March. The second Women's match wasn't as well attended as the first one. The range is next to a military base and a lot of soldiers came back from deployment at that time and were off on vacation or spending time with their families. We had six shooters including one new shooter. Not as good as the ten on our first outing but they're going to keep having them. I'm looking forward to the next one!

Mr WK and I also shot two matches, one at our regular indoor range and the first outdoor match of the year. Both were a lot of fun but we always enjoy the outdoor matches more. We have a vehicle that we use. We shoot around, under and in the vehicle taking advantage of the Fighting From a Vehicle classes many of us have taken. It's difficult to practice that in your driveway at home! And so far [touch wood] no one has shot it.

There was also a walkin' the dog stage. The set-up was several wild dogs were attacking your two dogs. One had pulled the leash out of your hand and was being, um, serviced by one of the feral dogs. Those readers who shoot IPDA or are familiar with it know that a target with hands painted on it is a non-threat. The guys drew paw prints on the dog non-threat! For all the dogs they cut the outer -3 area off the targets and had them all on the ground sideways, like dogs. Neat but more difficult to score!

Anyway, you also had a five pound dog on a leash represented by a five pound weight tied to the leash. You stood on a sturdy bench and had to hold the leash with the five pound weight off the ground while you were shooting as if you were holding back the dog as it tried to charge. Everyone shot it with two hands holding the "dog".

I tried that and couldn't maintain a good enough grip with my support hand. I kept having stovepipes. You couldn't let the weight touch the ground and it was hard to clear them with a five pound weight hanging from my support hand. I should have shot it strong hand only but, of course, didn't think of that until later. Duh!

Over the weekend we went to our local outdoor range both days. The weather was warm and clear although very windy on Sunday.

Saturday, we took long guns and pistols but ended up only doing the rifles. Mr WK spent his time at the covered shooting benches exercising the Mossberg 30-06 bolt gun and the .308 DPMS. He confirmed that the Mossberg was still spot on at 100 and 200 yards. He couldn't find a happy place with .308 but as it continues to break in we've learned that it's choosy. Oh, it shoots everything but only some things are very accurate instead of OK accurate.

I mostly worked out of the open area with my carbine, sling and inexpensive red-dot optic. It's hard not to grin and shoot up entire 30 round mags at 25 yards while shooting off-hand and practicing alternate shooting positions. Some of the guys looked a little askance at this older chubby woman workin' it. They are just not used to seeing women shoot the big guns there. Plenty of wives and girlfriends watch but I'm just about the only women I've every seen actually shooting out there let alone shooting from all kinds of different positions.

Mr WK and I has so much fun Saturday both our shoulders were sore!

Sunday we tested some .308 loads at 100 yards; 39 gn of Hodgdon's Benchmark with a Remington 180gn ps pcl was the ticket — 1" groups at 100 yards. Although I stuck with the smaller caliber on Saturday I put more rounds downrange than Mr WK. Even so, I volunteered to shoot the 20 test loads. I was glad that was ALL we decided to test.

We scored 277 pieces of .223 brass.There were some shooters there that didn't reload and said we could have their brass. Sweet!

Then we moved over the handgun range. Mr WK had some new .40 loads to test in his quest for a more accurate load for his M&P. This time out it was 180 gn bullets with 4.5 gn Hodgdon's Universal Clay's. Accurate but a real thumping.

I worked some more with my self-appointed shooting coach on target acquisition, focusing on accuracy over speed as always with both eyes open. I worked with his dueling tree and a paper target. My speed is not great but my accuracy is way up from several months ago. I've been workin' the dry fire at home ... well, more like the dry aim. When Mr WK's not home, no round in the chamber and finger OFF the trigger as I moved from room to room doing housework or whatever, I bring the gun up and acquire various targets on the wall, in a different room or outside. At the end of the day we were both pleased as I haven't had much live fire practice time.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Feelers by Brian M. Wiprud (a mystery)
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

Denial is a Wonderful Thing

2011-04-01T09:38:00.000-05:00

Mr WK's Vertical Striped Socks are taking yet another turn. The toe decreases on the first sock were about half finished which means I was probably within 10-15 rounds of finishing the sock!!!! I had him try it on one. more. time. And decided at that point (many, many, many, many rounds too late) that it really was too small. Only several rounds back I attached the second skein of both colors so I only frogged the sock back to that point.

Being the persistent (OK . . . stubborn, obdurate and bull-headed person I am — which is why I got this far with a too small sock in the first place) I am casting on again, knitting from the old sock. I went from casting on 84 stitches to 100 and now I'm going to cast on 130 stitches. I can take away mid-stream a heck of a lot easier than I can add to.

Meanwhile, the project is "resting". It's in a basket with around 70 cast-on stitches sitting on a needle. This is where being a process knitter comes in handy. I'll get there, eventually.

Meanwhile, I'm working on the White Caps Afghan. When I do knit on it, it grows slowly. At 350 stitches per row it takes a l-o-n-g time to knit 14 rows, which is one pattern repeat. And for some reason, the four pattern rows always seem to go more quickly. The seven wrong side purl rows and the three knit even rows seem to drag just a bit. Maybe it's because there's nothing to mark progress. When I'm kitting a pattern there is a beginning and an ending several times across 350 stitches. When it's just knitting or purling all the way across there's not such a feeling of progress until near the end.

I've got 401 rows knit on the afghan out of a possible 700 so it's almost 58% complete. A few rows back I attached the 12th skein of blue yarn. I'm not very far into the third skein of white. I bought lots and lots of yarn for this project. When I reach row 700 I'm going to see how much yarn I have left and and decide if I want to make it longer. Now it's just over four feet long. I'd like it to be a good six feet in length. As it's cotton it's very heavy. But I like it.

I've also been working more on my Sunset Socks. They're my stoplight / passenger knitting. The pattern is Nancy's Bush's Gentleman's Plain Winter Socks wth Dutch Heel. A 40 round ribbed cuff then the entire rest of the stock is stockinette. I was apparently in a frogging mood because I fogged the 28 rounds of the leg I had knit on this one back to the cuff. The knitting was very uneven from all the starting and stopping. This yarn is not every forgiving in that respect. I've now re-knit about a dozen rows and it looks better.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Witch Faith Narrelle M. Harris (a fantasy)
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

Spring Has Sprung!

2011-03-22T21:22:00.000-05:00

And the weather has been beautiful. Warm enough to have windows open all day!!

I'm on the downhill ride to the finish of the first of Mr WK's Vertical Striped Socks. I've just started the toe decrease rounds, in fair isle I might add. I had him try it on again!! five rounds from the toe decreases. It's a bit tight but the needles, even way down by the toes are still a bit of a hindrance when putting this sock on. If these socks shrink at all — even a little bit — I don't think he'll be able to get them on. But I don't think any of the wool socks I've hand washed in tepid water and air dried have shrunk; the cotton ones, yes; wool socks, no.

To recap: I cast on 100 stitches; the cuff was 25 rounds, the leg was 60 rounds, the heel flap was 30 rows, turning the heel was 37 short rows, I picked up 28 gusset stitches on each side which gave me 104 stitches — no gusset decreases and the foot was 65 rounds. Depending on how much time I have / take this weekend I may have the first sock done by Sunday night.

Mr WK had a very busy week last week which left me with lots of time to do housework and knit. This week's kind of shaping up to be the same thing for Mr WK but I'm more busy and don't have as much time to knit. I'm hoping to get the first sock finished sometime this week.

I'm still mulling over my next project. More socks for me or should I go for that lace scarf. Maybe a pair of wool lace socks. I haven't done any lace since I finished the Cranberry Monkey Socks for my SIL last August. My lace fingers are getting itchy.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: What Einstein Told His Cook by Robert L Wolke
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

Don't Get Out Much

2011-03-15T22:25:00.000-05:00

As you see, I've been knitting on Mr Wk's Vertical Striped sock. The photo was taken on round 30 of the foot. I did manage to pick up the gusset stitches in fair isle setting the groundwork for the foot to have all around vertical stripes — and no gusset decreases. I picked up enough stitches to have a total of 104. As stiff as the fabric is I decided not to do any gusset decreases. The original cast on was 100 stitches. I had him try the sock on again Saturday evening when I had seven rounds finished on the foot and with the needles in the way it was a bit of a struggle to get it on but I think it'll be easier when it's done. This is going to be one warm and thick pair of socks. Most likely just for house shoes, but that's OK.

Last Thursday, we shot an IDPA match. I did pretty good for me on the first two stages but fell down, accuracy-wise on the last two (I'm the third shooter). I get tired. I tend to spend the entire three hour match on my feet moving around. I'm usually filming each shooter and picking up brass or SOing. During the 30-45 minutes before the match I'm registering participants. Most everyone else takes a break and sits down for awhile. I can rest the next day. I want to get each one on film and I like helping.

I know it's a game but to me it's also valuable casual training. I don't have to think about how to properly use high or low cover now. I stand back from cover so that my gun doesn't protrude past cover so in real life it would be difficult for a bad guy to grab my gun from the other side of cover. I can recover quickly from a stovepipe with a rack, bang! although I don't get them much in competition. I can also do quick tap, rack bang! if necessary! I can reload from slide lock quickly and think ahead enough (most times) to do a tactical reload when I want to and not have to always shoot to slide-lock. When given the opportunity to do a some things free-style, I'm trying to always do them in a tactical manner; equal threats get tactical sequence and tactical reloads before moving from cover. I'm so slow anyway, doing away with these isn't going to affect my overall score much. I'm trying to concentrate on being more accurate and when I can get to the range I tend to work on target acquisition or controlled pairs practice.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: The Vanished Priestess by Meredith Blevins (an Annie Szabo mystery)
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

According to

2011-03-09T20:15:00.002-06:00

The leg on the first Mr WK's Vertical Stripped sock is now finished, the heel flap is done and even the Dutch heel has been turned in black held double. I kept the vertical stripes on the heel flap. The decreases messed with the striping just a bit in the middle on the bottom but that's OK — it's on the bottom of the foot and only a few rows. The vertical fair isle stripes were pretty straight forward on the flap which is knit back and forth rather than in the round. Next step is to pick up gusset stitches. I'm going to try to pick them up in fair isle. I don't know if that'll work. The gusset decreases will mess a bit with the striping but I'm pretty sure I can get them to end up a seamless all around stripe and still fit properly.

As Mr WK will have plenty of socks and back-up socks for a while, I may take a Mr WK sock break and cast on something else as my stay at home project when these are finished. I do want to eventually knit myself a fancy lace scarf/shawl but I'm not feelin' that mojo right now. I could also, I suppose, pick the up the White Caps Afghan. I did pick it up for a while yesterday evening and put 4½ more rows on it. I stopped knitting on it in late December when I was pushing to finish more socks for Mr WK. That's one project that would feel good to finish and begin to use. I cast on for it in February 2008. But ya know? I would just cast on for another one or some other EPIC project. "But it would be a new project," whispered the tiny project knitter voice.

This past Sunday we finally made it to the outdoor range for an afternoon of fun! fun! fun! I shot some .22LR and 9mm and Mr WK had fun with his M&P .40 cal. We also broke out a couple of the .357s and put some .357 and .38 specials downrange. Then we moved down to the high power range. Mr WK had the scope off my .308 and it was just bore sighted. He got it sighted in properly at 100 yards. After a little experimentation we figured out that the 150 gn fmj Hornady's 45 gn of Varget was the ticket. Both of us were getting 1" groups at 100 yards. Neither of us could get that projectile to group with H-335 our go-to powder or the IMR 4895. We couldn't do any better than 2-3" groups with either powder. I haven't been able to find any .30 cal 110 gn V-max projectiles. I still have 45 or so left but that's also one that last summer would group well.

blogging to: Memories 89

reading: Everglades by Randy Wayne White (a Doc Ford mystery)
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

Twisting the Night Away

2011-03-04T20:00:00.002-06:00

Things are rolling as ever they roll around here. I've been knitting up a storm. I've cast on again!! for Mr WK's Vertical Striped Socks. I got the stitch idea from Barbara Walker's first book, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. As before I'm doing it in fair isle where I carry both colors around and knit them as presented. I've gotten quite good at manipulating both strands and having the one I need when I need it. I am already tired of untwisting the yarn from the sock to bag.

When I cast on for the last attempt I cast on 84 stitches and this time I have one hundred stitches. He's tried the sock on when the 25 round cuff was complete, at round 25 of the leg and again at round 45 and it fit just fine every time. The photo is the sock when the leg was around half finished.

Often knitters and I'm sure other crafters and even some DIYers have a built in pair of rose-colored glasses. I should have expected it but I am a bit disappointed by how stiff the sock fabric is. As I mentioned in my last post it has plenty of vertical stretch but horizontal stretch, not so much. The fabric is thick and dense and feels like it's been felted. It should be very warm. Because of that if I can manage it, I've decided to carry the vertical striping not only through the heel flap, but hold the yarn double for the heel turn and when picking up the gusset stitches then carry the vertical stripes down through the foot and the toe decreases. That way the entire sock is essentially doubled in thickness and woolly warmth.

I'm liking the vertical striping but just short of halfway through the first sock I am ready for it to be done. But I pick it up and knit on it at every opportunity and soon it will be done and I can begin thinking about the next pair, whatever that is and whomever they shall be for.

I was able to give the Out of the Blue Watch Cap to it's recipient this past week. He loves it and I think a bit surprised by it's weight, softness and how good it looked. He may not be able to wear it much or at all during what remains of this winter but with reasonable care it'll last for many, many winters to come.

Double Tap Defensive Shooting Club (DTDSC) [our IDPA club] along with Godfrey's Indoor Ranges have started monthly Women only IDPA matches. Godfrey's had been talking for a few months about holding a women only event. Many of the women who had taken one of their new shooter courses or a CCW class wanted something more than standing at the shooting bench and shooting. But they were a bit intimidated about signing up to shoot with a bunch of guys they didn't know to do something they'd never done before. I could have told any one of them that our guys are among best as far as new shooter and new-to-IDPA support.

We held the first one on Feb 23. We had ten women altogether and seven of the women had never shot an IDPA match. One woman from our club who shoots with us when school and work allow, another woman who's been shooting on and off for a dozen years had shot IDPA but not recently and myself were the other three. The IDPA newbies were fantastic. As new shooters they listened to the CoF descriptions better than some of our long time male shooters. Not once was there a lengthy discussion of the CoF after the SO asked, "Any questions?"

Most of the women have to shoot controlled pairs (two sight pictures, two shots) rather than double taps (one sight picture, two shots) because we have less hand and arm strength than most of the guys. Some of the woman shot .22LR which I know isn't an "official" IDPA caliber but you can do those things at club level. Besides it got them there and shooting which was the whole point.

Most of the woman had never drawn from a holster, never shot from cover let alone moved from point a to b while shooting at a threat target. We shot five CoFs, the first of which was very basic, draw and fire two rounds each at three threat targets in tactical priority (near to far) and no non-threat targets. The second one involved shooting while moving forward to high cover and then three threat targets in tactical priority (slicing the pie) with a non-threat target partially shielding the final threat target. CoF number three really opened things up; multiple threat targets and non-threat targets, more than 11 rounds which meant either shooting to slide lock or a tactical reload (reload with retention); shooting at threat targets while movin across to high cover, then engaging more threat targets. CoF number four involved shooting while moving forward then some strong hand, support hand work from high cover. The final CoF was shooting from high cover in tactical priority (slicing the pie); mandatory tactical reload before leaving cover, moving across the range while engaging two threat targets, then take a knee at low cover and engage the final threat target.

The first match was going to be a one off event to gauge interest. They all had a great time and at the finish were asking when the next one would be. So now there are three more monthly events scheduled. I do think some will shoot matches with the rest of us simply because they want to shoot a match more than once a month but will continue to shoot at the Women's only matches to support the newbies. I also think that a great many will only shoot IDPA at the Women's only matches.

And I found out why at least one more reason why I couldn't hit anything the last couple of matches. I'm left eye dominant and the left lens my in glasses was twisted slighlty in the frame throwing off not only my close vision (which I already knew) but my far seeing vision, too. At least that's the "reason" I'm using now.

reading: A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read, a Madeline Dare mystery
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot

FO! FO! FO! FO! FO!

2011-02-16T19:15:00.000-06:00

I had the 25 round corrugated rib cuff and over a dozen stockinette fair isle vertical striped rounds complete on the latest in the Mr WK sock marathon. I finally had enough on the needles so he could try it on and see if it fit. The floats made the fabric so un-stretchable he couldn't get it over his heel. I tried to make the floats as loose as I could. The knit fabric had plenty of vertical stretch and some horizontal stretch but nothing like regular ribbing. In fact the ribbed cuff was wider than the stockinette and it's supposed to draw in and be narrower.

I had two choices. I could cast on 16 or 20 more stitches and do it again which would be fine. I've frogged socks way more advanced than this and reknit them. Not a problem. This is where being a process knitter instead of a product knitter comes in handy. OR I can do a regular 2x2 ribbed cuff in either solid color or horizontal stripes. It would look fine and actually be a nice contrast to the vertical stripes on the leg. And other than the photos Mr WK and I would most likely be the only ones to ever see the cuff anyway.

I do have two FOs! one of which you already know about. I finally got more photos taken today of Mr WK's Deep Blue Something Socks. The photo on the left taken on an overcast day shows the leg pattern better while the photo on the right taken on a sunny day shows the color better. I really struggled on the leg on this one. I had it almost all knit when I decided it was going to be very baggy so I frogged 50+ rounds, added 5 more rounds to the cuff for a 25 round cuff. Then I reknit the leg decreasing 1 stitch every 4 rounds from 84 stitches down to 62. I did a stockinette heel flap and a Dutch heel. I picked up a lot of extra gusset stitches so that I'd have 80 stitches for the foot. When it came time to do the toe decreases because each of the two top of foot needles stitches had only 15 or 16 stitches on each needle and the two bottom of foot needles had 25 stitches on each needle, I decreased on just the bottom of foot needles until they were even. I grafted the toes closed. Based on the weight of the socks [4.9 oz | 141 gr] and the cost of the yarn these socks cost $33.84. I used just under 1¼ 122 gr hanks. The yarn was not cheap at $24 a hank which is why the sock cost is high. I have enough yarn to make him another pair of socks.

Stats on socks 81 & 82:

Yarn: Barefoot by Mountain Colors in the deep blue colorway
Needles: 2.5mm Suzanne rosewood dpns
Pattern: cuff is 2x2 ribbing; leg is double moss stitch; all the rest is stockinette
Heel: stockinette heel flap & Dutch heel

They fit great and Mr Wk loves 'em which is what counts, after all.

The other FO! is the Out of the Blue Watch Cap. This hat is thick and heavy. It'll be really warm. I started with the yarn I'm using for the Vertical Striped Socks for Mr WK but I wasn't happy with the way it was looking so I decided to knit socks with it as it looks like fingering yarn rather than sport weight yarn. Then I started the hat on 4mm needles and that didn't look good either. So a bit of a ride to get there but I'm happy with the results.

Stats on watch cap #15

Yarn: Inca Alpaca by Classic Elite in coloway #1124 which is a dark slate heathered blue ~ I held the yarn doubled
Needles: cast on with 7.5mm and knit with 5mm Suzanne rosewood dpns
Pattern: k5, p2, k3, p2
50 rounds in the body and 26 decrease rounds

Unfolded the hat looks like a Pac-Man character but you can see the ribbing better. This hat took just under three 50 gr hanks. Based on the weight of the hat [5.1 oz | 145 gr] and the cost of the yarn this hat cost $24.65.

Initially when I was knitting this I was going by how many rounds I did on the cashmere watch caps done on 4mm needles. That was 109 rounds. When I got to round 60 on the body of this hat it looked really long. Then when I began to do the decreases on top it was even worse! So I frogged all the decrease rounds, and the body back to round 50. Then I didn't do as many knit even rounds between each decrease round and it turned out OK. There's enough fold to have a nice double layer over your ears.

And I have enough yarn leftover for something.

Now to cast on again! for Mr WK's Vertical Striped Socks.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Love of Danger by Max Brand (a trio of Robert Fernanld western stories)
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot: What happens in Wisconsin doesn't stay in Wisconsin.
link 1 and update

Tangled Up in Blue

2011-02-13T20:52:00.001-06:00

The Heathered Blue Hat which is now Out of the Blue Hat is moving right along. After many froggings and redoings, I've got 43 rounds completed and it's soft and heavy. I've knit up the first two hanks and need to get two more. Now that I've got the Out of the Blue Hat well in hand, except for having to buy more yarn [ahem] I am moving on to another pair of sock for Mr WK.

The navy and black Frog Tree Sport Alpaca that I originally bought for the hat has been cast on at least eight times. When I would screw up on the cast on or the first couple of rounds I'd change either the pattern or the cuff. So I've been through several iterations of the pattern and am hopefully on the one that's gonna stick. Among the stitches for for cuff were a corrugated rib, brioche stitch, twisted 2x2 rib and a helical spiral. At this point I am still doing the vertical stripes I mentioned in my last post. Currently I'm doing the corrugated ribbing on the cuff. I'm on round 13 and so far so good. I'm doing it in fair isle, carrying the floats along the back and hoping I've got them loose enough to stretch with the ribbing. If it works it will segue nicely into the vertical stripes.

And if I keep with the vertical stripe, which is all stockinette I may do yet another Dutch heel and carry the striping down onto the heel flap. The heel turn will have to be in one color and I haven't decided whether or not to carry the vertical striping down onto the top of the foot or even onto the bottom. I'll see how much of a hassle it is as I do the leg.

Haven't been shooting much at all. I've been doing some dry fire target acquisition drills but it just isn't as much fun with no BANG! at the end of each acquisition. I'd been doing some tactical reload aka reload with retention drills and that's paid off. As y'all know I've got small hands and short fingers so not a lot of room to hold things. I do a version of the L-magazine load that I learned in one of the carbine classes I took. Works pretty well for me. I clamp the loaded mag in the L-position (making sure that it's faced the proper direction) with the grip with my left hand and push the mag release with my left thumb. With my right hand I pull the gun up off the partial mag, my left hand is now holding both mags in the L-position; I rotate my left hand so that the full mag is now vertical and the partial mag is pointing toward by body. I lower the gun still pointing down range onto the vertical full mag and give the base of the mag an extra push with my left hand. Now I'm loaded and can move (if needed) as I stow the partial mag.

At the IDPA match this past Thursday, we had one CoF (Course of Fire) where we had two tactical reloads.

CoF: Begin with hands in the surrender position. At the buzzer draw and fire from retention, 1 round at each of 3 threat targets. While retreating to high cover, fire 1 more round at each of the same 3 threat targets. Behind high cover, perform a tactical reload (reload with retention) then from either side, fire 2 rounds each in tactical priority (slicing the pie) at the same 3 threat targets. Do a second tactical reload (reload with retention) with a fresh magazine then retreat again to high cover and fire 2 rounds each in tactical priority (slicing the pie) at the same 3 threat targets from either side.

It was challenging but fun and I didn't mess up on any of the reloads. Hitting all of the targets in the zero zone was a whole different issue. I am really noticing my lack of range time, dry fire drills aside.

One positive thing, one of the LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) that shoots with us showed me a slightly different way to hold my gun to mange recoil better. I index my left thumb on the take down lever and point my thumb forward, tensioning the tendon that runs along the arm in line with the thumb. Relaxed, it's easier to move my hand up but tensioned, it's more difficult. I haven't been able to try it yet to see if it helps my accuracy but I've been workin' the dry fire drills that way. Hopefully, with all the snow melting and above freezing temps during the day we can get out this week and I can put some lead downrange.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Still Waters by Nigel McCrery (a Detective Chief Inspector Mark Lapsile mystery)
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

Shovel Ready

2011-02-07T19:15:00.002-06:00

Mr WK's Deep Blue Something Socks are now ready-to-wear and have even been worn a few times. I finished them over a week ago (1/30). He tried them on and loves 'em. I've been trying to catch them between drying and wearing to get a photo. I will, now I have the socks drying where they're not right out where he can see them.

Anyway, when I finished the socks I immediately cast on for a requested hat. I stopped by my LYS a few weeks ago and picked up some Frog Tree black and navy sport alpaca; three skeins in each color. I had decided to make my standard watch cap. I'd cast on with the navy on 6mm needles then switched to my standard 4mm dpns. I did the first round also in navy then switched to the black. I made up the ribbing, k5, p2, k3, p2. I was holding the yarn doubled so the hat will be very warm and feel dense for it's size. I'd planned to do some kind of stripping. Hmmm.

But after I got 15 or so rounds knit I was not liking the result. The result was fine for socks, but for a hat, not so much. I really wanted some Blue Sky Alpaca which is an alpaca and silk blend. It has a very nice sheen. But the only dark colors available at the LYS were a garnet and a dark brown. Not what I was after. So I settled on the Frog Tree. It's soft but already the hat looks like it's been around the block. I don't know what's wrong but I didn't like it. So I frogged it and am going to repurpose the yarn for socks for Mr WK.

Back to the LYS I went. I looked at the Blue Sky Alpaca again and still the same color choices. I couldn't even bring myself to get a dark gray and light aqua blue which I loved but wouldn't stand up to rigors this hat might be subjected to. So I found a dark blue heathered alpaca in Classic Elite called Inca Alpaca. I picked up 3 hanks but I'm a thinkin' I'm going to need more as I'm holding this doubled, too.

I started with my usual hat recipe, cast on with 6mm then switch to 4 mm dpns but the stitches seemed cramped. So I frogged, again, cast on with a dog chewed (not our dog) 7.5mm and switched to a set of 5mm rosewood dpns from Suzanne. I kept the same ribbing. I've got a dozen rounds and this is the size needle that this yarn wants to be with with, especially doubled. I also think the recipient will like the yarn, so very soft, the color and the hat.

As to the next socks for Mr WK? Now that I'm not in such an all fired hurry to get it knit, I can take a little time and do something interesting. I was paging through Barbara Walker's first book, A Treasury of Knitting Patterns and settled on simple vertical stripes on page 51 of the blue soft cover edition. The photo is one I found when I Binged! the pattern name. So we'll see. It's slipped stitches on stockinette and I really don't know if I want to do a corrugated ribbed cuff. I like the effect and it would be perfect for these socks. I may not even carry through with the pattern and just do a horizontal stripe as it's way easier.

When I'm ready to take a break from the 5mm dpns (or when the hat is finished) I'll cast on and see what happens. The socks would look perfectly fine with a solid color cuff or even funky with a horizontally stripped cuff. I think I have enough yarn with six skeins to do 2 pairs of socks for Mr WK with this yarn so even if I chicken out for this first pair, I have more yarn to try it again.

We've had snow, snow and more snow and more coming. I've not been out running around on my own much. In fact we've not been out much at all. We got out two weeks ago for IDPA and hope (depends on how much snow we get) to go again Thursday. We've been so fortunate in that Mr WK's only had a few service calls during or right after a heavy snowfall.

However, just like last time, I have a hair cut scheduled for first thing Friday morning and we're to get several inches by Wednesday morning. Yes, I know I have two days to deal but we've not cleared my side of the drive since the 14" or so we got less than a week ago. Quite a lot of it has melted but that just means that now it's hard, crusty and difficult to shovel. I worked on my side a bit today and got just under half of it cleared. We'll see what we wake up to Wednesday morning and go from there.

blogging to: Memories 89 1

reading: A Case to Answer by Margaret Yorke (a mystery)
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

Days Go By

2011-01-21T18:40:00.002-06:00

I've not only cast on for second of Mr WK's Deep Blue Something Socks the day I finished the first one (1/17) but I'm in the process of turning the heel!!! Already! And apparently, either the double moss stitch or two 80 round legs attached to a size ten foot are yarn eaters. I felt SURE that 121 gr of yarn would do two socks for Mr WK. But it's not in the cards. I'll probably run out about a quarter of the way into the foot. So the next time I'm out, I'll scoot down to my LYS and pick up another hank. While I'm there I'll look to see if there is another hank of this yarn that would compliment the Deep Blue colorway. If so, I'll get it, and do another pair of socks for Mr WK using the Deep Blue as I used the light gray in this one.

As threatened, here's a photo of the first Deep Blue Something Sock. The yarn is Barefoot by Mountain Colors and the colorway is Deep Blue. The pattern on the leg is the double moss stitch. Look how much it spreads out! I still cannot get over that I started with 84 stitches at the top of the sock where the stitching changes, it's only 62 stitches! He says it fits and feels fine.

blogging to: Memories 89 1

reading: Love Me If You Must by Nicole Young (a Tish Amble mystery)
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

I am TJIC

2011-01-21T00:11:00.003-06:00

I am TJIC

Tammy says it more eloquently than I ever could. View from the Porch

Double Rainbow. All the Way

2011-01-18T13:30:00.000-06:00

Things are most excellent on Mr WK's Deep Blue Something Socks. I had him try the sock on when the cuff was finished, at round 20, round 40, round 60, a few rounds after the heel and into the foot, about 10 rounds before the toe decreases and finally when it was finished, yesterday. This photo was taken at round 53 just after I put a lifeline in when I still wasn't sure he'd be able to get it on over his heel much past round 40 if I continued the decreases. I took it out after he tried it on to see where I was for the toe decreases. Yes, this sock fits and it was worth all the trouble. Double rainbow all the way.

I did 80 rounds on the leg, stockinette heel flap and a shallow Dutch heel. I'd decreased so much; 22 rounds — from 84 stitches down to 62 — that instead of doing the heel with 42 stitches, it was 31 stitches. After I turned the heel, following the same pattern I did for all the other socks — even the decreases at the bottom of the heel flap, I picked up enough extra gusset stitches so that the foot had 89 stitches which I decreased down to 80, same as the other socks. I did 65 rounds on foot and 35 toe decrease rounds.

As to the toe decrease rounds, normally, I do a decrease round where I decrease 4 stitches then a knit even round with no decreases so that the narrowing to the end of the toes won't be steep. On this sock, there were 10 more stitches on each of the bottom of foot needles than there were on the top of the foot needles — 25 stitches vs 15 stitches. I knit decrease rounds only on the bottom of foot needles, two decrease rounds then one knit even round until all the needles had 15 stitches then I proceeded as I usually do.

I'll get some photos of the FO! when the sun comes out — someday — and try to show the leg pattern. Meanwhile, I've cast on for the mate.

The weather guessers were forecasting all kinds of freezing rain, drizzle, sleet and then snow for Sunday evening and on into Monday but we got nothing really. Sometimes it's good when they're wrong.

Thursday we shot our first IDPA match of the year at the indoor range in Topeka. We had only 13 shooters and so were able to shoot six courses of fire, a few of which were long. My newly acquired target acquisition skills are very perishable as shown by my match performance. It was the worst I'd done in a while.

So Monday afternoon we headed to the indoor range in Topeka for some practice. I worked the 22LR for 200 rounds interspersed with some .45 1911 work and a couple of mags of 115gn 9mm — the more accurate loads with Universal Clays. I finally shot up all the HP-38 loads. Anyway by the time we were finished shooting, I felt I was at least close to where I was but not there yet. I was getting the controlled pairs with the .22LR but not so much with the .45 or my 9mm. At least practice is fun.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Death Roll by Marilyn Victor & Michael Allan Mallory (a Lavender 'Snake' Jones mystery)
and
Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

Mambo No. 2

2011-01-09T14:00:00.000-06:00

I had Mr WK try on his Deep Blue Something Socks Friday morning. At around 53 or so rounds the leg was looking good but a bit loose as his calf narrowed down to his heel. This sock is nubby — this stitch does not draw in at all — it has no flexibility — and in fact seems to expand as wide as it can. I decreased eight stitches over several rounds in the back of the leg, mid-point of where the heel flap will be.

I had him try it on again later in the day at around round 65. Still a huge amount of fabric and as I knit further down the leg the calf was going to narrow even further. So I took a finger pinch of stitches and estimated 20 stitches. I helped him off with the sock, took a deep breath and frogged it all the way back to the cuff. I've increased the cuff length from 20 rounds to 25. As the stitch will not help to hold the sock up, the cuff will have to do all the heavy lifting. I'm also going to do a decrease every 4 rounds to work in a 20 stitch decrease in 80 rounds, which is how long I decided the leg is going to be. I'm not sure he'll be able to get his foot into it but we'll see. By Saturday evening I'd re-knit 20 rounds working in five decreases. I had Mr WK try it on and so far so good. Not a lot of extra fabric and no problem getting it on. I'll continue.

Worse case scenario if he can't get his foot into it: a) frog back to where can and just knit straight with no decreases and hang the sloppy heel or b) frog back to the cuff again and choose a different pattern.

Whatever pattern happens with the leg I've still pretty much decided on doing a Dutch Heel for this sock but I have decided that I'm not doing the double moss stitch (if that's still the pattern when I get there) on the top of the foot.

It snowed about an inch last night and we're supposed to get 4-6" more by the time it stops late Monday night. It's a few degrees above freezing. Earlier when there was a weak sun I scrapped the inch or so of snow off the driveway. Now it's not only snow free but drying. We won't have a layer of frozen snow and ice under the new snow.

We knew we were in for some kind of "bad" weather. When the deer come to our yard early that's a sure sign of it. Last night we had a pair at dusk before it started to snow. It'll be interesting to see if we get early deer this evening. I'll have to remember to look.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Hunter's Dance by Kathleen Hills (a Constable John McIntire mystery)
and

Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

Cool Like Dat

2011-01-06T13:55:00.000-06:00

Mr WK's Deep Blue Something Socks are screamin' along. No where as quickly as his Combat Socks (2 socks in 24 days) but considering I have to keep strict track of where I am so I don't screw up the pattern I'm doing OK. I'm figuring on a 70-80 round leg and I'm on round 40 so the leg is at least half knit. Overall a 70-80 round leg plus the 20 round cuff will make the part above the heel 90-100 rounds long. I'll have him try it on when it get to round 70 and see where on his calf it hits.

The pattern is the double moss stitch which is: rounds 1 & 2: k2, p2, ~rounds 3 & 4: p2, k2. Not a big deal but not easy to fix if you have to ladder down more than a few rounds. The pattern just looks like a garbled mess except in a bright light; bright sunlight is best. Then you can see the texture and that there really is a pattern. I'll try to get some shots in the next day or so but with dark yarn I'm not holdin' my breath you'll be able to see it. I've been surprised how easy it's been to not get lost.

My notes are a huge help there. I keep round counts of each section so I can knit the mate as close to the first sock as possible. I've been keeping round counts since I began knitting again, 7½ years ago so it's no biggie to finish a row or round and remember to mark down a number. I use blank 3x5 or 5x7 note cards and draw my own lines. When I do a heel turn I like a wider line so I can track not only the row but how many stitches I knit to get to the end after the turn. At the end of a pattern repeat I draw a thick vertical line so at a glance when I've put the WIP (work in progress) down in the middle of a needle I can pick it right up and know whether I need to be k2, p2 or p2, k2 instead of trying to divide the number of rounds knit by 4. Little tricks to make something tricky or potentially frustrating less so.

I've been thinking about the heel and I have three heels in my bag of heel tricks. I've done the Dutch Heel twice now and like it so I think I will cement it further into my pea brain by doing it again. Still gotta pick up those gusset stitches. Still gotta do short rows. Still gotta do a heel flap but I like it. Better than the short row heel, which does look neat. The short row heel shines with a self-patterning yarn.

Mr WK and I took a trip to the outdoor range Monday afternoon. Mr WK has been studying-up on the scope on my DPMS. He took it OFF!! a few days ago, re-aligned it then bore-sighted it. We took it to the high-power range, started at the fifty yard targets then went immediately to the 200 yard targets. As with the last time we were out with the DPMS in the cold none of us, could get any of the ammo to group, including our Sharpshooter Rifle Buddy aka as my shooting coach. I shot the gun very accurately (or so I posted) in late spring, early summer but couldn't group with anything in late summer and when it got cold. Hmmm. Our Sharpshooter Rifle Buddy was also puzzled. We're going to try to different powders and bullets and go from there.

On a more positive note, I put 24 rounds down range with my carbine at the 25 yard target, all but two rounds off-hand. It was cold, I was cold, I had gloves on and several layers including my heavy barn coat so it was tough (for me) to move easily. I'd shoot four or five rounds, move the muzzle to low ready, scan for the midget then up again for four or five more rounds, etc. ALL were on the paper, most were in the upper and lower abdomen (aiming for the zero zone, most ended up in the -1 zone with just a few in the on the -3 zone line) or the neck area of the head/torso (aiming for the head).

Next time out, I'm going to adjust my red dot up slightly. I am VERY pleased that ALL of my off-hand rounds were on paper. And although the majority were in a largish group, 4" at 25 yards off-hand, for me that is fantastic. It means I'm holding the rifle steadier for longer periods. That is a huge improvement. In the past, I would get only maybe two-thirds my rounds on paper and those would be widely spaced. It seems the target acquisition drills I'm doing with my pistol along with some increased forearm strength are doing the trick.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Sherlock Holmes in America edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Daniel Stashower and Jon Lellenberg
and

Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot:

Cast Off ~ Cast On!

2011-01-04T20:50:00.001-06:00

I have the first FO! of 2011 completed. Mr WK's Combat Socks. I finished the second sock wove in the ends on both socks and even fixed a dropped stitch on the heel of the first sock. They are ready for their close-up.

Stats:
Pattern: Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock with Dutch Heel from Nancy Bush's book Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Louet Gems
Colorway: charcoal ~ but it looks more like a dark olive greenish-gray, hence the name
Timeline: I cast on for the first sock on 12/10/10 and bound off the mate on 1/2/11, 24 days and I didn't knit on them every day.
Needles: cast on with 3mm bamboo dpns and knit the body of each sock with Suzanne's 2.5mm rosewood dpns

I've already cast on for the second of Mr WK's trio of new socks. The yarn is Barefoot from Mountain Colors and the colorway is called deep blue. The pattern is Double Moss Stitch from Charlene's Schurch's first book Sensational Knitted Socks, page 37. The stitch pattern is also out there in the public domain so I can chat about it. Thanks to a FB post from a friend who posted that she was listening to a Deep Blue Something CD [they sang Breakfast at Tiffany's] I have named the socks Deep Blue Something. The yarn is so dark that the stitch pattern looks like a deep blue something.

And I'm not sure about that pattern yet either. I've got the 20 round 2x2 ribbed cuff done and I've knit 15 or so rounds of the double moss stitch which is for the first two rounds; k2, p2 and for rounds 3 and 4; p2, k2 so it all looks kind of garbled. In bright daylight it still looks garbled. It's also going to be a real pain in the derrière should I have to fix something. I'll knit on for a while longer and see. Frogging is ALWAYS an option.

Monday evening we headed into KC to an indoor range to continue testing loads for our .45's. I'd ordered some round nose instead of the flat nose projectiles I'd ordered in the past. I tend to order whatever is cheapest for plinkin' ammo and for some reason the rn were a few pennies per each cheaper than the fn bullet this last time. It had been awhile since we looked at our .45 loads and we'd added a new gun to the stable and a new powder to the selection so it was time for a reassessment.

We have two 1911's and an M&P. The powders we tested the first time with medium hot loads were Tite Group (5.2 gn ~ NOT accurate, wouldn't group), Bullseye (5.6 gn ~ accurate but a HARD! whack), Universal Clays (6.2 gn ~ accurate ~ my old fireball load! [scroll down to photo]), HP 38 (5.8 gn ~ accurate and soft) and a the new kid on the block, Red Dot (5.0 ~ accurate and soft).

The second time out, we tested only the last four powders and cut the loads back. Both of these were shot at around ten yards by the same shooter, two rounds each time from each gun, on the top one and I think only one round from one of the 1911's on a couple of the ones on the bottom one.

1st test
upper left ~ 5.1 gn Alliant Bullseye ~ HOT!!!

lower left ~ 5.2 gn Hodgdon HP 38
lower right ~ 5.9 gn Universal Clays
center ~ 4.5 gn Alliant Red Dot

2nd test
upper left ~ 5.1 gn Alliant Bullseye ~ HOT!!!
lower left ~ 5.2 gn Hodgdon HP 38
lower right ~ 5.9 gn Universal Clays
center ~ 4.5 gn Alliant Red Dot

We did two tests.The most accurate both times was the Red Dot. We wouldn't have considered Red Dot if it weren't for a tip from a long-time fellow reloader and IDPA'r. The Universal Clays and HP 38 were more accurate on the first test than the second but both were more accurate both times than the Bullseye. Which is fine because I don't like the WHACK! I get from the Bullseye. Mr WK doesn't mind but then he likes to shoot .40, too. It's nice to have a choice. And Red Dot seems to be one of the less expensive of all the powders we tested.

We usually don't compete with our .45's except for IDPA-like events so it's just for plinkin' and having a bit of fun and recoil therapy. It is nice to have accurate fun, however.

blogging to: Memories 89 1

reading: Sherlock Holmes in America edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Daniel Stashower and Jon Lellenberg

and

Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies by Michelle Malkin

Parting Shot: “Deficit reduction has been a high priority for us. It is our mantra, pay-as-you-go.” ~ Nancy Pelosi at her final press conference as House Speaker 1/4/11

Whatcha Gonna Do

2011-01-01T15:40:00.001-06:00

H A P P Y N E W Y E A R !

No final FO! of 2010 but there will most likely be one the first or second day of 2011.

I finished the 50 round cuff on Mr WK's Combat Socks driving to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day family activities and up until last Monday I'd knit a measly five rounds on the 55 round leg. Now I've completed the leg, the heel, the 65 round foot and have around 10 rounds knit on the toe decreases. Quite a change from a week or so ago.

If I would have gotten my knitting mojo in gear earlier in the day instead of doing dishes (twice!), folding laundry, fixing a bang-up meatloaf dinner and taking a long nap, Mr WK would probably be wearing a new pair of socks this morning.

As I'm so close to the end of these socks I put some thought in this morning on the next pattern. I already know the yarn. It's the Mountain Colors Barefoot in a deep blue and the socks will be for Mr WK. After leafing through several sock books and looking at the patterns I've found on-line, I decided to do a double moss pattern on the leg and maybe the top of the foot depending on how aggressive it is. I found the pattern in Charlene Schurch's first book, Sensational Knitted Socks. The stitch is also out there in the wild so I won't be giving anything away talking about it. I don't know how ribby it will be so I'll do a nice cuff that'll hold the sock up. Now all I need to do is wind the yarn and finish the second Combat Sock.

With Mr WK's Combat Socks complete I won't be in such a tearing hurry to finish the next pair. Just that extra pair gives me a bit more breathing room to make sure he always has a clean pair to wear on a service call. All of his wool socks get hand washed, spun for a bit in the washer to get out most of the water then air dried. When it's windy and in the 50's I can lay them outside on the glider and they dry in an afternoon. Otherwise it takes a day or so.

And lest you think Mr WK was shirking while I toiled, he was prepping .223 brass and reclaiming bullets and brass from some .308 military surplus ammo. Our recently retired active military buddy had given us several hundred rounds of this ammo. Not knowing what kind of primers, how old the ammo was, etc we decided to pull the bullets, fertilize the yard with the powder, carefully deprime then polish the brass. The bullets are FMJ and weigh in at 150 gn. Most of the .308 ammo came on 5 round stripper clips in olive green pouches. When we load 'em back up we're going to be putting them back on the clips and back into clean pouches.

blogging to: Memories 89 1

reading: Twelve Mile Limit by Randy Wayne White (a Doc Ford mystery)

Parting Shot:

Ho! Ho! Ho!

2010-12-24T15:20:00.001-06:00

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S

The first of Mr WK's Combat Socks is finished and I've not only cast on for the mate but the cuff is within 15 rounds of being complete. Then the easy-peasy part comes. All knitting all the time. Well ... until I get to the heel but the 55 round leg goes quickly. I'm still pluggin' for a end of year FO!!

I didn't have / take any knitting time today. I wrapped and bagged and bowed. Then I sorted pistol ammo from the plastic 100 round storage boxes we use to the 50 round paper boxes my BIL provided and striped ammo from stripper clips to put into 100 round plastic storage boxes. The .223 my BIL owns is a Ranch Rifle, all wood furniture and a bolt instead of a magazine. We are a bit apart in our rifle views not caliber — presentation. Mr WK and I, we're both drawn to the evil black and composite while the BIL, he likes the wood and lots of detail engraving. BIL does have some tupperware pistols. He bought those to shoot as the engraved ones don't get out much. I think we've influenced his purchases more than he's influenced us. He even got a S&W M&P 15-22. That way he can shoot .22LR at his local indoor range. Personally, I prefer the .223 (which I have) but that's just me. 5'1", 160 lbs and 55 years of Bad. Ass.

[I'll wait while you mop up the beverage you may have just spewed all over your keyboard and monitor while you writhed in helpless laughter]

And when you get right down to it, Mr WK and I have differing views on some things. I like the carbine for CQB and that's how I like to shoot and practice. I'm all about the CQB with my carbine and my pistol. One of these days when I get the right shotgun I'll add that into my training mix.

I'm also wanting to get an ambi mag release for my carbine so I can do reload drills easier and quicker. I'm left eye dominant but shoot pistols right handed. I shoot rifles left handed. My carbine is a righty. It tends to spit the brass out to the front so it works for me shooting left handed. Also, Mr WK can pick it up and doesn't have to make any adjustments, other than to switch the sling (ambi sling mount) if he wants to use that. The safety and bolt release work OK for me on the left side but eventually I'm going to have those ambi, too. Main thing is the mag release. I have tiny hands and having to hold and control two thirty-round mags in my right hand while hitting the mag release is too much. Being able to hit the mag release with my left hand would be HUGE help.

Mr WK likes long distance hi-power rifle shooting. 100 and 200 yard targets with his 30-06 or his 20" .223. He'll bang away at paper targets for a while then take a break and hit the gong at 200 yards. But I'm thinking that now that he has a different upper for his carbine and doesn't have the muzzle break that made that rifle not so much fun to shoot he may get more into the CQB.

blogging to: Pandora Radio seeded with Manheim Steamroller Christmas

reading: A False Mirror by Charles Todd (an Ian Rutledge mystery)

Parting Shot:

Tra La La

2010-12-22T21:10:00.001-06:00

In case you missed the last post I have Mr WK's first Combat Sock done. And this afternoon I cast on for the mate. I stopped by my LYS this afternoon and picked up another hank of the yarn. The dye lot is different but I can't "see" a difference in the color. Well, no matter — there was no guarantee that there were three matching hanks when I picked up the first two. And yes, I "should" be knitting on the mate but I'm not.

Mr WK is quite pleased with his sock and is looking forward to being able to wear them.

I was also able to take some WIP (work-in-progress) photos of two more projects.

This is the White Caps Afghan laid out on a Queen-sized bed. It's 350 stitches wide. This is row 378 which is just over 27 14 row panels. The circular needle I have it on isn't long enough for the top to be stretched out to its full width. That's a yard stick so you can have some idea of the length, which is just over four feet.

The photo on the right is a close-up of the pattern. You can see where I got the name from. It looks a bit like white foam on blue waves. This is going to be one heavy, warm afghan when it's finished. I'm hoping it will be done by the end of this winter.

The other WIP is my stoplight knitting sock, aka my Sunset Socks. They are the same pattern as Mr WK's Combat Socks. It's not the first time I've knit the same pattern but the first time I've used a completely different yarn and color. These are going to take a lot longer to finish.

The branch it's lying on is from our Limber Pine. A few weeks ago, the deer tore this branch off to get to the bark before I could protect it with lawn chairs. The first year we had the tree, they torn down a few branches including the top in December. It looked terrible for a few years until it grew up past the damage. I've stacked lawn chairs around it every winter since they did it the first time. This time they got to it before I did the chairs. The damage wasn't was bad as this so I suspect it'll be OK and in a couple of years it won't be noticeable.

Mr WK took the trigger out of his newest carbine which he purchased used this summer. Our Sharpshooter Rifle Buddy had noted that it felt gritty. There was dried on gunk on the trigger and hammer assembly. Mr WK cleaned all that off and lubed it. Then he backed off pressure on the hammer spring, which was what our Sharpshooter Rifle Buddy did to my carbine and Mr WK's 20" target rifle. The trigger now feels smoother and more crisp. Now it's ready for another day at the range.

blogging to: Memories 89 1

reading: Dark Light Randy Wayne White (a Doc Ford mystery)

Parting Shot:

Round and Round and Rounds

2010-12-21T17:30:00.001-06:00

I'm well on my way to a possible final FO! for this year. The cuff, leg, heel and foot are complete on Mr WK's first Combat Sock. I'm callin' 'em Combat Socks because the yarn is kind of an army dark olive green; although Louet Gems calls it "charcoal". I'd say it's more of a greenish gray rather than a grayish-green. Nancy Bush's Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock with Dutch Heel is a very easy and quick knit. A long (50 rounds in this case) ribbed cuff and the rest is all stockinette. Depending on how the rest of the evening goes, I hope to be casting on for the mate later this evening or tomorrow.

update 8:40pm: first sock is finished .... well, except for weaving in two ends

I attached the second hank about 20 rounds shy of the end of the foot. Based on the first pair of socks I knit for Mr WK in this pattern, I'll need the third hank around the time I start the heel flap on the second sock. I need to get out and finish Christmas shopping so I'll pick it up then. As quickly as I'm moving, I may be ready for it before the weekend is done.

I also sat on and broke yet another Suzanne's 2.5mm rosewood dpn. I usually have at least two full sets (of 5) plus a few extra but when I cast on for these I had one set and a few extra. So I'll be picking up one more set of those while I'm there. I do have plenty of this size in ebony.

This past Sunday it was warmer and the sun was shining. Mr WK and I hit the outdoor range for some rifle practice. I don't know whether my hours and hours and hundreds and hundreds of .22lr rounds working on target acquisition has had any effect on my carbine skills but maybe so. I have an inexpensive red dot optic on my carbine and it really does help me acquire a target quickly. Much more quickly and accurately than I can with just iron sights. 25 rounds @ 25 yards from various positions, two rounds from each position; prone, curbs with support hand, curbs with strong hand, sitting Indian-style, kneeling, one knee, sitting on a stool and standing off-hand in the aggressively progressive stance. I put controlled pairs (two sight pictures, two shots) as quickly as I could then shifted into another position and did the same thing.

The fliers are most likely off hand as I'm supported in all the other positions. I'm very pleased that all 25 rounds are on the target and every single one would give a bad guy a bad day. I plan to bring the optic up a few inches so that the cluster will be center mass although where it sits isn't a bad place either.

Mr WK had purchased a new upper for his carbine a few weeks ago. We'd purchased the rifle used and it had a muzzle break on the 14" barrel to bring the barrel length out to 16". So now the muzzle break is gone and it's much more fun to shoot and be around when he's shooting it. He'd bore sighted it but he had a chance Sunday to sight the iron sights in at 25 yards and then the red dot. We're both pleased with how it shoots.

blogging to: Memories 89

reading: Dark Light by Randy Wayne White (a Doc Ford mystery)

Parting Shot:

Better and Better

2010-12-18T20:45:00.000-06:00

All quiet here in boring hermitville. We strive for the boring and we embrace the hermit in both of us. We're not anti-social, just mostly prefer keeping ourselves to ourselves. But occasionally we're forced out by an IDPA match.

We were fortunate to be able to go to two matches, one in Topeka over a week ago and another this past Thursday. For me, I did pretty good both times. As my fancy-pants camera was not working I was unable to take any photos or videos at the match in Topeka. Consequently, I did better the entire match, specially the last one or two. Usually, after SOing (being a Safety Officer which entails either running the shot timer or the clipboard with the score sheets) and taking photos I'm tired by the last couple of stages and don't do as well. I had the little camera at the most recent match and ran around all evening taking videos and SOing so I did terrible on the last stage.

I'm still at or near the bottom of every match's results. As I s-l-o-w-l-y improve others improve more quickly. But I am very pleased to say that I'm getting more zeros, ones and twos than I am fives, tens and FTNs (failure to neutralize) for each threat target. During a CoF (Course of Fire) most of our threat targets require at least two anywhere in a zero zone which is center mass or the head. A score of five for a threat target would mean that I got one in the center zone and the other missed the target completely. A ten and an FTN means that I didn't hit it at all. So that would be ten points down for that PLUS a FTN which is another five points. [More on scoring here ~ scroll down] AND! AND! more of my shots are closer together. Which means that I'm controlling muzzle rise better. I think that over 1,500 rounds (mostly .22LR) and hours and hours of practice this fall on target acquisition has something to do with that. I will probably never be able to do doubletaps or hammers with anything but a carbine or a .22LR pistol but that's OK. Controlled pairs are just as lethal.

I'm slow however which is what kills me on match scores. But with more practice I'll get quicker with no loss of accuracy. That will really bring my scores up. The best thing is that being more accurate in competition will I hope translate to more accuracy when it would really count.

On a side note about Thursday's shoot, one of the match directors got clever. One of the stages was called, One Hand Open Slay. You held a large, much desired wrapped Christmas parcel in your support arm and hand to engage bad guys, strong hand only.

Another cool thing, was the the third CoF. This one had four wolves and a bear under low light conditions. This new range we shoot at in Junction City, KS, Godfrey's Shooting and Archery Ranges has lots of cool features, including sound effects. For this one they played wolves howling and bears growling. For the CoF above, they had Christmas Music going. Very. Cool.

The heel is done on Mr WK's Combat Socks. The pattern is Nancy Bush's Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock with Dutch Heel from her book Knitting Vintage Socks. I've knit several socks, some more than once from this book. This sock and my Sunset Socks are this pattern. Now I'm doing the gusset decreases on the first sock.

"Unofficially" I'm going to try to finish both of Mr WK's Combat Socks by year end. I think I have a halfway decent shot at it. I too way to much time on the decreases at the bottom of the heel flap and actually turning the heel. But now that I'm on the foot it should fly. It's ALL stockinette!!

There is one fly in the ointment. For some stupid reason I only picked up two hanks of this yarn not three. So sometime in the coming week, I'll stop by my LYS and latch onto another hank.

blogging to: Memories 89

reading: In Vino Veritas by J M Gregson (a Lambert and Hook mystery)

Parting Shot:

Knitting not Dragging my Heels

2010-12-17T18:30:00.002-06:00

Too cold to go the the outdoor range and we've been too comfortable at home to want to drive to any of the indoor ranges. So a LOT of knitting and reading and organizing is being done or worked on over the past week or so.

I cast on for Mr WK's first Louet Gems Combat sock ten days ago. The 50 round cuff and 55 round leg are finished. The heel flap is finished and I've stared turning the heel on this Dutch heel.

Warning: Knitting Science ~ The heel flap is the same, using around half of the total stitches. With a "regular" turned heel, you end up with about half of the stitches you started with on the heel flap. The shape of the turn is triangular. On the photo on the left just above the needle at the bottom you can see the triangular shape. You start the turn at the flattened top of the triangle and decrease one stitch per row gradually widening the bottom of the triangle as you knit or purl together a new stitch from the new edge and one from the triangle. You keep knitting (on the right side) and purling (on the wrong side) until all the edge stitches have been knit or purled.

The Dutch Heel (the pink part on the photo to the right) reduces to the center five or six stitches (which is determined by five or six rows of decreases just before turning the heel. You only knit these center stitches. It's kind of like the edge stitches get sucked into the center drain on row and one stitch at a time. You keep knitting and purling the center stitches until you only have the five or six center stitches.

Then the instructions on the two heel turns merge and you pick up stitches along the edges the same way so that you're again knitting in the round.

I was a bit worried when I knit the first pair of socks that used this heel that Mr WK could feel that center strip which after all is on the bottom on his foot but he says not. I looked at how bumped out the triangular turned heel is and it feels bumpy, too. I can't feel it. I guess if you used a thick yarn, you might be able to, but then you probably wouldn't be able to get shoes on over the bulky socks! By the way, neither of these photos are mine.

On my Sunset Socks, the cuff is finally finished and I've ten or so rounds on the leg. I've moved very gradually from a pumpkin orange to a burnt orange and am currently knitting a reddish orange color.

I noted in my last post that my fancy-pants camera shot craps. I bought one of those extended warranty things and the local shop doesn't do repairs any longer. So I'm to pack it up and send it off. Not happy about that but we'll see. In the meantime, instead of going the what would probably turn out to be a multi disposable camera purchase I bought a Cannon PowerShot A490. It was on sale because it's probably an older model. I liked because it has larger control buttons than some of the other brands priced the same. It takes video, too. It'll fill the gap.

So I'll be able to get some photos of my current knitting over the weekend.

blogging to: Memories 89

reading: Fear of Drowning Peter Turnball (a Chief Inspector George Hennessey mystery)

Parting Shot: language warning