Happy Halloween part 2

I know you missed it. "It" being the saga of Jeremy Clark-Erskine. It's scary.

I still get hits every week from all over the United States and Canada generated by web searches for this guy. There is news about him.

He's filed a writ of habeas corpus in Indiana. He's in jail there, but it seems like he's not been charged with escape or another crime. I have to ask law enforcement (because I know I'm getting hits from government agencies about him):

What the fuck?

I'm serious. What the fuck? Why is this guy not being charged? I've filed complaints against him for several crimes. Is Illinois or Cook County or even the City of Countryside doing anything? No. I was told by the arresting officer that Jeremy was arrested with the property I reported stolen a month before. But none of my local officials wants to claim jurisdiction. Hey, if Indiana can't seem to charge him, why not file charges here? Bring him here for trail and put him in jail in Cook County with the gang bangers.

And as for Indiana, come on guys! If nothing else, he was in your jail and according to your officials he walked away without authorization. Walked away! First of all, how do you let someone walk away from jail? Secondly, isn’t walking away from jail a crime? When are you going to do something about that? You also know that he left the state. Have you checked out how? I bet he did some bad stuff that you could punish him for. I bet you could find out what. He used credit cards in his name the whole way. Did you look into that?

And Wisconsin, what are you doing? Jeremy Erskine was arrested with one of your driver’s licenses. It’s in the Jasper, AB arrest record. If I could get that record, so can you. I bet you could find out where he got the identification. Could it have been your Kenosha facility? Maybe? And how would he have gotten that? He would have had to use a document proving that he lived in Wisconsin. Since he didn’t live in Wisconsin, could it have been a real document?

Finally, can the Federal government step in? Certainly there’s something here for you to look into. In fact, when Cook County gave me the runaround about Mr. Clark-Erskine charged for what I think he did to me, they told me that that particular thing should be handled by the FBI. The FBI referred me to the Secret Service. The Secret Service told to go back to Cook County. When will someone take responsibility for seeing that this man doesn’t hurt more people?

Based on the number of people who have contacted me through this blog, and the number of hits related to his name I get, I have an idea of how many people are concerned about this man’s existence and potential freedom. I also have an idea of the number of people who believe they have been his victims in the last year and a half. And we are not getting justice. We’ve found the resources to find each other. Why can’t law enforcement and the courts find the resources to investigate what we’re telling you and keep him in jail!

Happy Halloween part 1

First of all, I am not among the dead. Just very busy.

Wedding plans have been switched. The January 20 plan in Flossmoor has been ditched. Instead, we are going to married one month from tomorrow at a hotel on Michigan Avenue. Less stress.

How? About 1/4 the guest list and a professional planner and venue. The only things I really have to do at this point is finish signing contracts and take my dress to have it taken up. There were also some practical and financial reasons for wanting to move sooner.

So that's what's up. Not too scary.

Bad knitting day

Seriously, WTF? I mean I'm used to bad hair days. A little too dry, and I get frizzy stuck-my-finger-in-a-light-socket hair. A little too humid, and I become Rosanne Roseannadanna with a Chicago accent. But bad knitting day? What's up with that.

All day today I've been trying to get something done on the Rheingold Wrap. My quota is 10 rows per day. Some days there are more, and some days less. But today was 4 rows. Nearly every time I got to the end of the chart, which is repeated five times per row, I'd find I'd miss counted and I had to tink back nearly to the start of the chart and redo it. AAAAnd...Usually I made the same mistake every time I came to the same point. Oy. Oy vey.

Now there is no getting discouraged. Tomorrow is another (SnB, not SNL) day.

Weekly wrap up

I thought I'd get a lot done on the Rheingold wrap this weekend. After all, I came to Maryland with the intention of not doing nothing. All weekend. To me, not doing nothing usually involves intensive knitting, and that sounds good to me right now. I'm 2.25 chart repeats into the wrap, and trying to maintain a serious case of finish-it-up-itis until it's done. I thought I could do one entire repeat this weekend, but it turns out that I'm really doing nothing. Not even knitting.

The Amazing E tells me that the wrap is beautiful. However, he read the blog the other night and had to call me.

You bought more yarn!
Yes, I needed yarn for the wrap. It came all the way from Scotland. Besides, I have to have something nice to keep we warm on our wedding day.

But it's a lot more yarn. Look 1, 2, 3, ... 7, 8, 9.
Yes, it's a lot of yarn. And I've already taken 7 other skeins out of that box.

How big is this thing going to be?!
24 " by 56"

How much did you spend? $200?
No.

$300?
No. Not even close.

You spent $400 on the yarn!
No. I spent much less than that. But it was in Pounds.

How much?
Less than the first number, when you convert it into dollars.

You've like...doubled... your stash. Out of the wedding budget!
No. Okay. First of all, this is not stash. That would require the intention of stashing it. As you can see, it is cast on. Not stashed. Second of all you clearly do not have a grasp of the size of my stash. Last, yarn always comes out of the yarn budget....

I think he finally realized he's marrying a knitter, and not just some lady who knits. It's a hard realization, but this conversation had to happen some time.

Calculations

Ok. This is a big project.

The Rheingold Wrap is consists of 12 pattern repeats of 38 rows each. That's 456 rows. 80,712 stitches. Wew. Wow. Oy.

I've completed now 48 rows, so I'm more than 10% done. That's in only 4 days. But I've been on track and motivated. I'm trying to think of this as a labor of love rather than just labor.

48 rows down. 95 days to go.

Pretties

Last Wednesday, my kit for Jade Staremore's Rheingold Wrap came in the mail, and I unwrapped it with the Tinley Park girls. The kit came with the pattern and a box full of the Starmore 2-ply Hebridean. The yarn itself is very lofty and somewhat soft. It's only a little crunchy. The colors themselves are slightly variegated, making them beautiful.
I cast the project on Friday, and have since completed one 38 row pattern repeat. The wrap is knit in the round, 177 stitches per row. I'm doing it on a size 3 Addi Turbo. There will be a steek to make it flat. Only 11 more repeats to go my January 20th! I'm afraid I'm going to have to figure out how to knit in my sleep.In the non-knitting world of pretties, the orchid plant I bought in Hawaii is blooming.
Lastly, congratulations Tzurriz. We all love you.

Its official

The Amazing E and I will be married in Flossmoor, Illinois on January 20th.

I'll post more interesting stuff tomorrow. The Staremore will be a little bigger by then.

Not lazy

Really, it hasn't been laziness keeping me away. I've been playing on Ravelry and knitting a lot and working on the wedding plans. If fact I'm in Maryland now. You can see for yourself what I've been up to on Ravelry. I've gotten through some of my stash. (At least the sock yarn box and the bag o' crap box. )

One Maimuţă is finished. It's Gypsy Girl in in the Winter Solstice colorway and made on Knitpicks size 1 1/2 needles. This sock only took 8 days, and I've got the second cast on already. I should be able to get more knitting done in the near future, as I'll be working in downtown Chicago at a great bastion of capitalism until I move to Maryland in January. And therefore will be taking the train to and from work.

Wedding plans are creeping along. We've tentatively picked a date and a place to have the shindig. We've inquired about the band. I even got Amazing E to come to the store and try registering. This was not an altogether successful endeavor, but it was a start. E also has an engagement ring. Aww. It's made of Tungsten Carbide, and is therefore very cool (to a geeky engineer such as the one I'm marrying).
Yesterday we went to Delaware to order my dress. There's a store there that carries last season's designs for dresses, and happen to have the one I will wear. The great thing is that these dresses are half off. The bad thing is the drive to Delaware. It's a couple of hours. Well, I suppose it's not that bad. I got to see more of the state I'll be living in soon. But we drove there so I could do the measuring and ordering while E stayed in the car. After that, we drove around and went to the beach and then home.

Pretty soon all other projects will be put away in favor of wedding knitting...

This should be no surprise

I am a yarn snob.

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Purist. You are an accomplished knitter producing beautiful pieces with a classic feel. You sometimes lament losing half of your local yarn shop to garish novelty yarns. Perhaps you consider fun fur scarves the bane of knitting society and prefer to steer new knitters towards the wool and cotton blends. Some might call you a bit of an elitist but you know that you've been doing this craft long enough to respect the history behind it and honor it with beautiful piece that can last a lifetime. http://marniemaclean.com
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What shall I do about my name?

Most of you know, the name of this blog is a homophone for my real name. In a few short months, my name will be changing. Well, it's not really so passive as that. Fortunately in this day and age, I have a choice. We considered not changing my name, thought about him taking my last name (because it's hilarious), and about me changing my name. I have chosen to change both my first and last name. I've been procrastinating on changing my first name for about 10 years. I want to, but I haven't wanted to go through the paperwork.

My given first name is ridiculously Irish and Catholic for a Jewish woman to have. There is a good reason for this. My father's family hails from such Irish places as the Dingle Peninsula and County Mayo (G-d help us!). However, my married name will be Miryam insertridiculouslyjewishlastnamehere.

So what will I do about the name of this blog? Can I change the name and switch over all the content?

Show and tell

The Amazing E was in town this weekend, and a lot of progress toward the wedding plans. We have a tentative date, we have a reset engagement ring, we have some ceremony details worked out, and we have a ketubah picked out.

My pretty has been reset. It's a size three! I want to thank a special friend for helping us out with the jeweler. Thanks, special friend!
I did start working on those monkeys on Wednesday. Scott wants to show you the progress.

More 4x4 fun: Mauna Kea

After getting the yummy curry, we got onto the real business of the day. We were driving up to the top of Mauna Kea. This is a nearly 14,000 ft volcano with some of the best telescopes in the world on top. To sum up now, we were at sea level at noon in the Waipi'o Valley, and were going to be at over 13,000 feet by sundown. Let the challenge begin!

This adventure started with driving the Saddle Road, and narrow and shitty road that runs between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa in the interior of the island that crests at over 6,000 feet above sea level. Most rental car companies specifically forbid taking their cars on this road, but the Jeep was allowed.

We wanted to see the sunset from up there and then attend the nightly astronomy program at the visitors' center back down at 9,000 feet. I get goofy at high altitudes, so my Amazing E did the driving. It's a good thing too, because I did get goofy. (Stop, I can hear the giggles of "How do you know the difference. Believe me, there is one.) Here's me goofy at the top of Mauna Kea.


And E was a champ up there.And this is that sunset we wanted to see, from above the clouds.

Then I said "Uncle" and we drove down. Like I said, I get goofy up there. In fact, we went all the way down to sea level to make me happy. I couldn't stay up there for the show.

My hope, my disappointment

Observe.

The yarn on the left is my new hope. It is the Gypsy Girl yarn. I will make with it my Monkeys. It now holds my hopes.

Because they have been dashed by the yarn on the right. It's the Trekking. The Trekking is very pretty, but it really sucks. It has no stretchiness of any kind. I just frogged almost an entire sock that I'd knitted of it. Say goodbye to it before it meets its fate. This is a first, a skein of yarn wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. I guess sometimes even little guys like this have to be tried as grown up projects.As for other socks, E's second bribery sock is nearly done and the 100 stitch socks are still coming along one row at a time (although I'm ready to frog them as well).

Hawaii: the 4x4 challenge

We got some training for driving the Jeep on that trip out to the beach, and put it to the test on day 6.

That day, we left Hilo and traveled north along the coast toward the Waipi'o Valley. It's a beautiful, old, and huge valley in the northern part of the island. This is a part of the island that would probably look like the other Hawaiian islands than most of what you've seen so far. There's been a lot of time for erosion up there.

Waipi'o is very secluded. I've visited the overlooks on other trips, but have never been able to go into the valley because the only road down there is a steep, one-lane, nasty thing that requires four wheel drive. But we drove down!And we went to the beach. It was a very nice beach with good sized waves and powdery soft black sand. Then we drove back up that road. Take a look at the horizon in this picture.
Next, we got back on the road and stopped for Thai food in Waimea. Yes! I can eat Thai food again!

A decision

I have made one. How about that.It's the Rheingold Wrap. I want a warm cuddly for this winter.

Bag of crap

Well, I did it. I ordered that bag of crap from Cherry Tree Hill. And guess what I got... yeah, it was crap.There are two large hanks of crazy fringed ribbon. One even has glitter. Also, a large hank of baby mohair loop. HOT PINK! chenille fluff, and a nice little hank of fingering weight alpaca. The alpaca is the only thing I like. I'm sure I can make that into a pretty lace cap for a gift or something. Also, I got a pair of needles, a color card for some crappy yarn, and three lousy patterns.

Yeah, at least I got one thing I like. And the needles are good. I am very disappointed again, however. I mean, why two hanks of lousy fringe? My biggest outrage is that they did so much advertising about a horde of Supersock, and didn't give any. If I'd gotten one skein of that instead of one of the fringes, I would be happy. But NNNOOO. Fringe galore.

In conclusion, the Cherry Tree Hill Orphan sale used to be good. But now it surely sucks. I'll not be ordering it again.

Hawaii day five: MB, Amazing E, and Pu'u O'o

Day five greeted us with a beautiful sunrise. We got up early on the east side of the island and walked over to the shore to see the sun come up, and we were not disappointed. This is a sunrise double rainbow over Mauna Kea. Aww. Very romantic.
Then we headed to Volcanoes National Park for real. First we stopped by the rim of Helemaumau, Kiluaea's from the 1800's up until the 1960's. Mark Twain was here, and saw this thing seething with lava. Smoke and steam still come out of the floor, and they let you walk around down there. We stopped for a while to let E get some rest.
The day's delay in going to the park allowed us to collect some intelligence about chances of seeing lava. You see, for most of my lifetime lava has been erupting out of the Pu'u O'o vent. The eruption is building a smoking cone that can be seen for miles. BTW, the name of the vent sounds like Poo-ooh Oh-oh. The opening of the vent faces toward the sea, and lava tends to flow down that way and into the water. It's quite a sight to see, and E and I had planned on hiking to wherever that would be visible.

However, sometime this summer a new vent formed on the other side of Pu'u O'o from which lava is flowing inland. You can't get to the lava right now. However, we heard that there was a chance of seeing it from a hill in the middle of the lava field that was formed back in the 1980's. That was only a short hike, so we decided to do it. Boy was it worth it. With the help of some binoculars I picked up on clearance right before we left, we were able to see lava coming out of the new vent. Now, this was not lava flowing on the ground. This was lava spraying out of the earth into the air. Fireworks for the new year! From left to right, that's me, E, and Pu'u O'o.

Next we drove down to see the sea. That's a natural arch of lava.
Lastly, this is the recent area of lava flow going down to the sea. I am presenting it to you with my best Vanna White pose.

Regularaly scheduled programming

I'm taking a break from the vacation engagement story to bring you some regularly scheduled knitting programming. I can't guarantee that this won't be interrupted by wedding mishegas.

Well, it already has. I was sort of having a bride "moment" (okay, it was a day) the other day. It wasn't a bad one. Mostly, it had to do with not having any idea what we're doing about a wedding yet. I'll feel better once some things are actually nailed down. You know, little things like when.

In my "moment" I got a hold of Tzurriz. Her solution, of course, was yarn shopping. For therapeutic purposes only. She took me to Nana's Knitting Shop in Oak Lawn. And she is an enabler. Oh, and did you know that this yarn store is in the middle of all the wedding vendors in the southwest suburbs? Yeah.

I bought yarn. I was powerless before the yarn in that condition, but I only bought sock yarn. And now I have to go on a yarn diet. (Stop it. I can hear you sniggering now.)It's Gypsy Girl in Winter Solstice. Sigh. You know, I think I know my problem. I'm not knitting enough. I'm sure I'd be more relaxed if I went back to knitting more.

Day four: feral chickens attack

Sorry it took so long to continue here. Wedding planning, jetlag, and work have stolen my brain.

Could day four really have been half way through the trip? We were having soooo much fun. Especially considering the engagement, it felt like an early honeymoon.

Like I said, we spent the night at an inn near the Volcanoes National Park. Going to that park was one of our priorities, so we stayed nearby and planned to spend the whole day there. However, our huge plans for day four were foiled. But we had fun anyway.

Most of the park is fairly high up in altitude and has very few water or other facilities. Additionally, we were planning a day hike across the lava field to see if lava could be seen entering the ocean. I've done this hike before, and it's a serious one. So I packed for serious hiking and we got in the car and headed over there.

Dun dun dun.

It was not to be. We got up near the park entrance and E turned green. I suppose we'll never know why. Perhaps it was the sudden change of altitude, or the jetlag catching up, or both. Anyway, we made a planned stop for breakfast to see if that would help him. He ordered some bacon and eggs and stuff, but had to pack it up and take it with him. And back down to sea level we went.

Poor guy. He needed to rest, but it was two early for checking into the next place and couldn't go back to last night's accommodations. So I took him to Lava Tree State Park, a nice quiet spot were he could nap on a park bench while I walked around.

The interesting thing about this place is that (guess what?) lava flowed here once. If flowed through the forest and hit trees. When that happened, a pillar of lava formed on the side of the tree facing upstream, with a mold of the burning tree forming on the other side. It's kind of a neat thing to see.
The Amazing E took a nap on a picnic table while I walked around. When I returned, he as being stalked by a half dozen wild chickens. Really. Stray chickens were surrounding my future husband. They looked pretty serious, too.I guess he felt like he had to placate them somehow, so he fed them some of his breakfast bacon. And eggs. Somehow I think that idea is wrong on many levels.

After that, we took a drive to the Puna coast and did some snorkeling. The trees were lovely there, so I'll show you.
By mid-afternoon, we were both beat. So we headed into Hilo, ate early dinner, and went to the hotel and stayed in all night.

Day three: Jeep tricks

There was a reason for renting the Jeep Wrangler. It's an uncomfortable tin can of a vehicle, but it beats all shit off road.

We started off early and went to Pu'uhonaunau National Historical Park, the Place of Refuge. Not only is it an interesting historical site, but IMHO it has the best snorkeling on the island.
E apparently likes to take pictures of flowers. Here is an artistic flower picture he took at the park.

We also went snorkeling, of course, and had a great time. The reef there is deeper and hard to access (you got to just from a ledge into the waves), but it was worth it.

Next we went to the beach. Possibly the remotest beach on the island. To get there, you have to drive over a lava field for several miles until the "road" becomes too rough even for the Jeep, and then hoof it the last 1/3 mile. This is where we left the Jeep at the end of the road. I think the 4 or 5 mile drive took an hour each way.Then we climbed to the top of a hill and saw this:
It might be the prettiest beach I've ever seen. And almost no one goes there. That might be why it's so pretty. In fact, it's so remote and unused that green sea turtles nest there. And do you see what else is interesting about it? Look at the sand near the bottom of the picture. It looks green. That's because it is green. There is a large olivine deposit there that is eroding into sand. Awesome!

After spending some time gawking, we drove back on that some road. And Dude, people stay along that road in Tee Pees.
Lastly, we went to the southernmost point in the United States. It's windy there. That night we stayed near Volcano National Park.