J is for Jaen

Last September, a friend of mine was moving to Portland, OR. She called me and asked me to help her pack up her Yarn Room. Yes. She had a Yarn. Room.

It was a normal sized bedroom and the walls were lined with blocks of cubbies and cabinets. Each cubbie/cabinet thing was about 4' or 5' tall - each one stuffed to the gills with yarn. One wall had 3 bookcases - 6' each and these were overflowing with knitting books and magazines. In the closet she had her "project" packages - she'd put specific patterns with the yarn called for into clear plastic zip bags and hung them on hangers. There were well over 50 of these packages.
Now, I'm not one to judge another's stash. I've pretty well documented my stash as beyond S.A.B.L.E. and have no room to talk. Her stuff was fairly well organized and it didn't take long to pack most of it up. The reason she asked for help was that it was all so overwhelming for her. She said she'd walk into the room, look at it all, and just walk back out.

I was the same way when we moved in September. But, having no attachment to her yarn (other then your basic lust and envy), I was able to go in there and start clearing stuff out. She'd gone to Target and bought about 12 huge bins. I cleared one wall of cubbie/cabinet things in about 20 minutes. The whole time, I kept thinking of that line from Jaws, "We're going to need a bigger boat." She didn't have enough bins but we spent two hours packing them as best we could. I put all the books into several large boxes with very strict instructions for her to NOT try to lift them by herself as each box weighed close to 80 pounds or more. There was one box that a case of printer paper came in - I used that box just for her printed-out patterns; it wasn't big enough.

She thanked me over and over and then started thanking me, as knitters do, with yarn. I told her it was no big deal but she insisted it was as I was in my own house-move drama at the time. I told her it was a welcome break from my stuff, I was in moving mode anyway, and who wouldn't want to come play with her yarn!

She gave me 2 reddish skeins of Malabrigo which I made into the Just Enough Ruffles scarf for D2's teacher. She gave me a skein of sock yarn that she got in a sock club a year ago - one that she knew I was lusting over ever since she showed it to me. There were 2 skeins of grey Berroco Comfort that were to be a shark hat but she was aggravated by the pattern and passed them on to me so I could make one for the boys.

She had a sweater half knit in Malabrigo that was going to be "too big for any human to wear" (she said) and told me if I wanted to frog it, I could have it all. I'm not one to pass up free Mal, right? Here's the yarn after I frogged it...


It's Malabrigo Worsted in the Jaen color. I don't really care for the color and thought I'd put it up on Ravelry to sell it and buy a Mal color I liked. I've had no takers for the selling and just last weekend it occurred to me that if I just overdyed it, I'd have 5 skeins worth of Malabrigo in a color I loved!

Right now it's a yellowy-swamp-green. The current color isn't ugly or anything, it's just not me. Besides, I already have a swampy-green (no yellow) sweater and Dave likes to call it my Shrek sweater. (Shut up, Dave.) I'm going to overdye it with some form of blue. I'll share pic's after it's done. Wish me luck! (And don't hold your breath, it may take awhile before I get to it...)

Wishing for a Yarn Room of my own someday, Ruth!

Notes From The Frog Pond

I get the Knitter's Review emails. Do you? It's a lovely newsletter thing that I'm entirely too lazy to link to tonight. It's done by Clara Parkes (met her at the Sock Summit!) and if you do a search for either, you'll find it easily.

This question was posited in this week's edition under the "Knitter's Poll":
Would you consider knitting with yarn from someone else's unraveled project?


BWAHAHAHAHAHA

Are you kidding me?? Is this really an issue? I do it all the time with my own yarn, why would it bother me to do it from someone else's??

It's sort of a running joke in this house that whenever Dave hears me grumbling at my knitting he says, "What, do you have to tear it out and start over?"

For years, whenever there was a mistake in something I was working on, I'd rip it all the way back to the beginning and start over. Finally, I learned how to drop a stitch down and fix the mistake or to rip back to the mistake and not to the cast-on.

I rather perfected starting the do-over while simultaneously ripping out the original.

I know some people feel you should frog the yarn, wet it, hang it on a hanger with a weight so it unkinks the yarn but I'm much too impatient for that nonsense!

So, even though I have too much yarn - if you have a project you aren't happy with or is half finished and you don't want the fiber anymore or can't bear to frog it - I'll take it!

Waiting by the mailbox, Ruth!

Aaaaaand..... I'm Done

I have too much yarn. It's a fact. I've had to face it several times and I think it hit me in the face again when we moved.

Too. Much. Yarn.

After Sock Summit, (where I was surprisingly subdued in my purchasing), I came home and started packing. Packing the cyclone that was our basement (my own personal hidey-hole/cave) was a bit of a wake up call. I'd been pretty diligent in putting new yarn in the designated bins (Wool, Felting Wool, Good Stuff, Sock, etc.). Over the last six months in that house, I let it get away from me and when I was packing up the basement and found 2 LARGE bins worth of free-range yarn....

I have too much yarn.

I told my friend Donna, "I'm done buying yarn."

She laughed.

"No, seriously! I have so much yarn. There's no way in hell I can knit it all and I keep acquiring more. I have over 200 pairs worth of sock yarn. If I knit a pair a month, it would take me 16 years to get through it all! I don't knit a pair a month. I think, all total, I've knit.... 2 pairs."

She looked skeptical but, kindly, didn't say anything.

Then 2 days later she tells me that there's a yarn store going out of business and all the yarn is 30% off. Damn enabler! We went to the sale and I got 2 sweaters worth of really good yarn.

OK, I said. Now I'm really done.

Then there's Ravelry. I've loved the Charrua colorway of Malabrigo with a love that shall not be named. I've always thought it was a bit busy for a whole sweater but there's this person on Rav who had 8 skeins for $60 (incl. shipping). 8 skeins! I resisted as long as I could (seriously, I stayed away from it for about 3 months) and I didn't find anyone making sweaters with that color - again, it might just be too busy! I finally found someone who'd done something really cool with it (in sweater form) and I broke down and got it. Problem is, I didn't bookmark/fave/whatever the really cool thing and it's now lost in the vortex that is Ravelry. sigh.

Then the Malabrigo Junkies group has some Stockpile October Fest and a bunch of shops were having Malabrigo sales. At Sock Summit, the friends we were staying with came to Marketplace. I told Melissa to go buy some yarn she thought was pretty and I'd make some mitts and/or a scarf for her. She picked Pagoda colored Malabrigo. I thought, "Wow! She has great taste - in yarn and colors!" I also thought, yes, that Pagoda is very pretty! But when I started working with it and really seeing the subtleties of shading and color.... then this Stocktober thing came along. I bought a bag of 10.

But, here's the thing! A bag of 10 was 30% off! With free shipping! And I've been eyeballing that stuff for months now!

I know. There's no real defense here, just excuses.

But now I'm done. For real.

Really!

No more sock clubs (unless I'm trading for them), no more lurking the Ravelry ISO/Destash group (that's dangerous crack to me), no more sales.

The only reason I can buy yarn is if I don't have what I need to complete a current project, because I have Too. Much. Yarn.

Not selling any, Ruth!

Blank Stare Productions

I've had this idea in my head for awhile and the Dye For Glory contest has inspired me to go ahead and give it a shot. (For those of you not on Ravelry, the Dye For Glory contest is a contest exclusively for dyers who will be selling their wares at the Sock Summit.)

I present to you, Dear Readers, my Blank Stare Productions yarn....

I'm getting sock blanks and staring at them until I see what I want to paint. I bought one blank a few months ago and have been trying to decide which of the ideas I want to try first. Then one morning I was in that half awake state and the picture formed in my head. I shot upright in bed and said, "BACON!"

The contest has been the catalyst for me to make bacon. This is the my entry for the Out of the Box category...

Colorway: Better 'n Bacon

I love this colorway. It makes me laugh every time I see it! Better 'n Bacon as in, "The Sock summit 2009 is gonna be better then bacon."

This yarn, like all my blanks, is 462 yards of double knit 75% Superwash Merino/25% Nylon. You unravel the two strands and, using your favorite two at a time sock knitting technique, end up with super matchy-matchy socks!

My next entry is for the Predictable Striping category and goes a little something like this....

Colorway: Crater Lake

If you ever in your life get the chance to see it, Crater Lake in Oregon is one of the most beautiful bodies of water available. I've tried to capture some of that beauty here. I've made the deep swirling waves of water surrounded by the pine trees. The cool thing about this one is that the tips and toes will be the dark green, complimenting the deep water blue in the middle of your socks!

If you're on Ravelry, don't forget to go vote for you favorites, whatever they may be! You have until August 1st and you can place your votes here.

mm

mmmBaconmmmmm, Ruth!

P. S. Both colorways are available in my Etsy store.

X is for Xenia

This will be a random Thursday post...

Another day, another hank of yarn. Splee! I got the latest shipment from Nefarious Yarns over a week ago. I'm posting the pic's at the end of this post, so if you are in the Club and don't have yours yet, be warned...

I also an FO to share! I know. Don't fall down, I do knit and, occasionally, even finish stuff!



Notes:

Pattern: Retro Redux Shrug from the book Lace Style
Modeled by the ever-lovely Donna, this project was fairly easy and quick. My mom picked out the pattern before I took her on a yarn crawl. It gets a bit tedious around the middle but it’s so fast that the tedium is short-lived.

Yarn: Lonesome Stone's Fraser Flats

The yarn was a huge disappointment. It’s some of the yarn my mom picked out (and bought) when I took her on a yarn crawl in 11/2007. First off, I think the color is hideous! It’s like an Easter egg threw up. Also, in the first skein of Fraser Flats, there were SO many cheater knots, I stopped counting at 20. Over 20 in 325 yards. I’ll never buy this stuff! The yarn is 2 singles plied together (she says with no spinning knowledge) and most of the cheater knots were just in one single or the other. The riotous color combined with the lacy stitch pattern, I didn’t bother cutting/rejoining around the knots. You can’t see any of them!

I used one whole skein and about a tenth of the second skein. I'll definitely be making this little gem of a shrug for myself someday!

I actually finished this around Mother's Day but wanted to wait to post about it as my mom stops in occasionally.

Yesterday was Davis' last day of Kindergarten. sigh. They had a little class party and there was a slide show of the kids and most of the moms were tearing up at the music combined with the slide show. My little guy is going to be in first grade! Dave commented the other day, "Remember when they were babies and they started to lose that baby face and get that little boy face?"

Me: Sadly, yes.

Dave: Have you noticed that T doesn't really have that little boy face anymore?

Me: I know! (starts tearing up)

Dave: They'll be moving out soon... (laughs while I'm punching him for making me cry)

Speaking of crying,

I read The Last Lecture. Cranked it out in a day. Which means I spent most of that day (last Sunday) bawling. Great book but, damn, it makes me cry!

I also finished The Mists of Avalon. I think my limit on interest in a book is around the 600 page point. I loved this book, it was so amazing and so well written! BUT it was 875 pages! And around 600 I was thinking, "OK, I get it. They all love someone else they can't have and they've all been manipulated by their elders and, in turn are manipulating those around them." For me, it was sort of like watching the Sopranos series - it was an excellent, compelling story told with a type of writing I can only dream of doing but in the end, no single character was particularly likeable. They all became distinctly unlikeable as the book progressed but I couldn't stop reading it! And when it's all said and done, I just felt sad for every character involved. Except Gwenyfhar (that's Gweneviere to you and me, Rusty) - hated that bitch. She lived her life in a state of constant fear and spread her mental illness to those around her. On the other hand, the only reason she had those fears was because of the stupid way she was raised.

I think my favorite part of this book was how the author approached religion and how it was changing at the time period of the book. Very cool and endlessly fascinating to me!

I don't know if I'll plunge into The Forest House next or skip it and move on to the Hobbit. I found out that Forest House isn't even a true sequel - it's a prequel and doesn't seem to have much to do with anyone in The Mists. In my quest for sequels (and since I'm a bit behind - should've finished Mists and Forest by now!), I may save it for later and see if I have time at the end of the year.

Also, I needed a break from the Middle Ages and before I plunged into Middle Earth, so I read that Last Lecture book and am taking another small detour.

I'm reading The Shack now. Those who know my views on religion might be a bit shocked. I've been assured this is an interesting take on God and am curious about it. I've just finished the first chapter and I'm already annoyed. I think it's annoyance of my own contrivance. The guy got his little note (if you're unfamiliar with the synopsis of this book, check the link) and just fell and whacked his head a good one in the driveway. Then went into his house with a possible concussion. So. If this book ends with the "it was all just a dream" due to a concussion with the added banality of him receiving the note before the head injury so then "but who knows, maybe..." kind of thing..... I'm going to have to slap someone. Hard.

I've got 5 WIP's and my usual 15 UFO's on needles. I heard the difference being a WIP is something you are actively working on and a UFO is something that's been stalled for more then a month.

There's a big spider crawling towards me across the ceiling and now down the wall behind my desk. I have a deal with spiders - if they are outside or out of my reach, their fine. This one's about to die. He's dead.

OK... as promised, here's the pic's of my new yarn pron....

Isn't it gorgeous!? It's called Xenia after the killer femme fatale from the movie Goldeneye. I usually don't like yellow. At all. But this stuff is so pretty!

Warming up to the yellow, Ruth!

Swap Swag

How 'bout we start the New Year with some yarn pron?

I'm in the Secret Pal 13 Swap. This is my first time in SP and I gotta say, I was gettin' nervous. Y'all know how I love a good swap and I've been terribly active over at Swap-bot for a little over a year now. I've been getting stiffed over at Swap-bot lately and I'm pretty much done with it. But I always hear (and see) such great things about SP swaps that I thought I'd give it a shot. My upstream partner had been communicating really well but I was starting to wonder if I had a big talker who was actually going to stiff me (happens a lot on Swap-bot).

I worry no more. I got my first package and it's so good it makes my head spin!

I got STR!

This is the Valkyrie colorway and I can't stop petting it.


There was also this fantastic sock bag...

See the skulls?

The new Yarn Harlot book and cool post card...


Some devilish, pirate ducky DPN holders...

A Fall Goodies bag from The Knitting Philistine!

That's the Philistine's notions bag, a tin of lip balm, a fantastic smelling soap and a little garden gnome - awesome!

Best. Stitch. Markers. EVER!

Sorry, but I couldn't get a shot of these unblurred. That's a treasure chest, a hello kitty pirate, a jolly roger flag and a wee dagger.

How great is this package???!!!

Then some friends and I did a little swappy between us and Sam drew my name.

She put everything in this cardboard wine tube (great for holding your average length straight needles!)...

You should see all the stuff she crammed in there!

Closeups:

Fantastic little robot notions bag.

Beautiful tiny stitch markers!

I adore this address book she included! I love old movies with a passion I can't begin to describe. Each letter of the alphabet has a replica of a movie poster and on the other side of the movie poster page is the description of the movie (some are pretty funny without meaning to be - hah!). So cool!

And, of course, there was yarn! Sparkly, sparkly, yarn mmmmm.....

Persuasion from Tempted Yarns

(There may have also been some chocolates but they were devoured so quickly, I can hardly remember...)

Hope my year goes as well as the last one ended, Ruth!

P. S. Hope your new year goes well too!

P.P.S. Here's a couple more for you (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

My Favorite Color

Red.

Among others I have these reds in my sock yarns:

Cosmic Fibers Nefarious Sock Yarn Club
Colorway: Lizzie Borden (It's a lovely brick/blood red)
70% Superwash Merino, 30% Seasilk
380 yards

Cherry Tree Hill
Colorway: Burgundy (a lovely deep burgundy)
100% Merino
420 yards



Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn
Colorway: Bold Red (a bright cherry red)
80% Superwash Wool, 20% Nylon
215 yards (I have 2 skeins)

Which should I use for this? I'm thinking the Bold Red! People should always have a little Boldness in their lives and this stuff's the most easily washed.

See, I promised y'all yarn, Ruth!

The Bounty and the Booty

I won this...

It's a skein of Rabbitch's amazing hand-dyed sock yarn and I won it from the equally amazing Hot Rod Libby Loo.

and this....

It's 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces in the lovely Jeans colorway and I won it from Craft Lilly

and bought this...

It's a tissue holder and I got from JooSweetie's Etsy store.

My mom's visit went really well. I brought her home from the airport and made her look through all my knitting books to pick out some stuff she liked. Then Saturday, I took her on a yarn crawl.

First we went to String, where she bought this stuff

These two will be mixed in the edging and then the plain grey on the right for the rest of the body of a vest.

6 skeins of this Kashmir for me!

At A Knitted Peace, she got this...

Berroco Tapestry - 11 of the blue for a thing for her and one silver/grey for a scarf I'm planning for me.

And at Colorful Yarns, she got this...

2 giant skeins for the little lacy shrug in the Lace Style book.

And 2 skeins of Interlacements Tiny Toes for me.

And this from Yarn Arts...

For a project to be named later.

Then there's the swaps!

I got this lovely pumpkin Alpaca from an orange yarn swap. Not normally a fan of orange, but this stuff's beautiful!

And I got this stuff in a wish list swap...

Still drooling, Ruth!

Whirlygigs

Tippa Tuesday:

Buy a swift and ball-winder. Today!

My Blogless Rachel and I went halvsies on a ball-winder and swift from JoAnn.com. You can get the Sunday paper, and use your 40% off coupons to buy them (they are not available at the stores)! We got an excellent wooden swift and a big ball winder for about $75 total with S/H. That's a steal!

They are currently on sale now at JoAnn.com but Rachel says there's something you can do to make them off-sale so you can use your coupons.

We had a couple of drinks and some ball-winding madness last nite! Forgot my camera, so no pic's sorry.

Playing with balls, Ruth!

heh, heh, playing with balls. I'm a geek.

100

THE CONTEST

THE PRIZES

Runs from June 1 - Sept. 15, 2007

_______________________________________________________

THE MINI CONTEST Runs from July 15 - July 20 (midnight), 2007

I'd like a link to your first blog post and your 100th (if you have one yet). If you don't have a blog, then give a link to the first memorable post that made you start reading blogs! The prize will be some mystery yarn and some baubles I've been making. One entry per person!

Wow, 100. I can't believe I've posted that much already. I only started this thing in March! Here's a link to my first post. I've been reading all of the entry posts I've already received and it seems to be a running theme. Either there's apologies ("I'm starting a blog. I know, I know, like we need more blogs...") or restarts ("I've tried this before but let's give it another go"). My first post has a little of both!

Things I've learned so far:

a) bloggers are NOT "imaginary friends", as my husband likes to call them. I've met several and they are wonderful!

b) bloggers are very helpful for life/knitting/computer tips and advice

c) some bloggers are thoughtless and mean because, apparently absence (and anonymity) make the heart grow colder (hasn't happened to me yet, but I've read about it)

d) I love writing (wait, I already knew that one)

I still have a lot of cleaning of the basement and the garage before the inlaws get here on Sat., so that's all for now!

I leave you with some yarn porn...

Plucky Knitter Sock Yarn - Thistle

And a shot or two of our little one. (The lights weren't on, it's just the flash of the camera making it so bright.) We went to check on the boys before bed and when we went to Davie's room this is what we saw...


Upon further inspection....

Our little guys love books!

Cleaning away, Ruth!

You're Not Supposed To Talk About....

Religion.

So before I go and lose all my readers (hope not!) let's start with
Massage Monday:
Another seated stretch.... As always, you want to take these into a stretch, not into pain. Sit with your back in the chair and both feet on the floor. Take you right ankle and cross it over your left knee ("sittin' like a man" as my gma used to say). Now just lean your body forward (you want to lean from the waist, not from your shoulders). You should feel a great stretch on the outside of your hip, going into your butt. This can also be done standing, just lean on a wall, bring your ankle to your slightly bent other knee and lean forward. As always, rinse and repeat on the other side. I love this stretch!

On to our subject.

I got a lot of cool mail last week. First there was this...
That's one skein of Knitting Notions Sock Yarn (420 yards in Midnight Blue) and two skeins of Knitting Notions Lace Yarn (388 yards each in Thyme color). 726 yards of laceweight, wtf am I gonna do with that?? That's what happens when you shop at midnite! Don't worry, I already have ideas for it. Do you see the needle in the Midnight yarn? The war against my knitting ennui has begun.

Then I got this big box from my swap buddy at a yarn swap I signed up for over at Swap-bot...

There's two skeins of Lion Brand Wool-ease (which is perfect because I was going to go get some to make my MIL some slippers) and two skeins of Red Heart SuperSaver. She also put the yarn in a lovely basket and added a big tea bag of sorts (I'm guessing it's tub tea, it's huge!) and these books...

Best. swap-buddy. ever!

Then I received another big envelope....

Yarn Pirate, Rain color. Gorgeous!

Then there was this....


The yarn is some hand spun/hand-dyed yarn I'd won on a blog contest. It was a blog I'd never been to and I found it through a link from a blog I adore. Truthfully, most new blogs I read, I find through other blogs linking to contests.

So the woman sends me the yarn and a book about Jesus. I can't begin to express how much that Pissed. Me. Off. And before anyone starts gettin' on me about talking behind someone's back, I've already emailed her. The email I sent was, I think, very diplomatic. It went a little something like this: "Thank you for the yarn. It's very pretty and I really think you did a good job with it. That being said, I was rather upset and very disappointed with the book you sent with it. We ARE NOT Christians. My husband's an atheist and I follow Taoism. I can't help but wonder how you would feel if you'd won some yarn on my blog and I sent it along with a copy of "The God Delusion"?
I'll probably be talking about this on my blog come Monday. I won't be linking to you or using your name. Just giving you a heads up.
Again, great job on the yarn. I hope you keep doing that and knitting. Don't really know what else to say. By for now, Ruth"

So here's my thoughts. I don't care what religion you are and you shouldn't care what mine is. I grew up baptist. My family went to church three times a week. Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night was youth night (anyone out there remember AWANA? It's like boy/girl scouts for church). I loved it as a kid, and that's not belittling anyone that still loves it. I'm just saying, some of my best memories are from vacation bible school, AWANA olympics, and church summer camp!

When I was around 12, things started happening in my life and at my church that made me take a different direction. I never understood the philosophy that God had this unconditional love.... unless you were gay, unless you had (or thought about having) an abortion, unless a hundred other things that made the love so conditional. At church I was seeing a lot of hypocritical people who would say one thing at church and then go commit criminal acts. Or just plain exclusionary acts against new members that made them uncomfortable (like the young couple with a baby - she had lots of piercings in her ears and he had a mohawk and the ice cream social the church had been pumping for weeks was not even mentioned that day).

I started doing my own research. That, a divorce, and a mom smart enough to realize that if I did my own research, I could make my own decisions. My decision was that church and Christianity as a whole were not for me.

I've had people of faith (many different ones) ask how we will raise our children. DAMN that's presumptuous! I tell them all the same thing. We will teach them right from wrong. We will show them by the way we live. We also have an entire shelf on our bookcases that's devoted to religion. There's a Bible, a Book of Mormon, a Koran, books on Eastern and East Indian religions, and many others. When they are old enough and have questions we can't answer to their satisfaction, they can do their own research and make their own decisions.

It's like tattoos. The only people who care if you have tattoos (of which I have six) are people who don't have them. I agree with Whoopi Goldberg, "Organized religion is bad for you. It says we are and you are not." But I don't push my views. And I won't allow others to push their views on me. I find it offensive, rude, and unbelievably presumptuous. I understand that a big part of Christianity is testifying, spreading the word of God. (Acts 9:15 " Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel." That's from memory.) I've always held the belief that the best way to spread the word of god (any god) is to live the best life you can. To lead through example is better then a thousand words, even those in books sent through the mail.

Hoping you all stick around, Ruth!

P.S. Incidentally, she hasn't emailed me back and her blog is gone.

What Are Friends For!

This was the scene set in my basement last nite. My friend, Rachel, is going on vacation this weekend and wanted a bikini wax before she left. After a failed attempt using something called Nads, she asked if I could help. I wax my legs most of the time and have some experience with a wax pot. (Nads?? Seriously? Why would anyone name a beauty product after a man's testicles?)

The picture is of the wax pot, some soothing after-wax lotion, and a stiff drink. Rachel is a master drink mixer. Before we went downstairs, she made mojitos with fresh mint from her own garden. Then we moved on to coconut rum mixed with cranberry juice and pineapple juice. Mmmmm, tasty!

Here's a picture of Rachel's glass in front of mine. See how much more empty hers is? I was drinking a bit slower. After all, the waxing didn't hurt me a bit!

I'm enamored of this pattern on knitty.com. I have one ball of this color...

I need 4 more. I have these colors that I can trade....

girlie pink

white-ish

light tan

darker tan

black

Anyone out there game for a trade?

Off to wax my legs now, Ruth!

P. S. The yarn up for grabs yesterday is claimed.