A dirty faced kid in her pink sweater!

She informed me that the top is a bit long, I told her that she'll grow into it and by the time it's her birthday (end of May) it will probably be the length she likes. Kids grow so fast.

A pink sweater

You knit and knit and knit. Your daughter stands next to you telling you to hurry and finish up her sweater. You are designing the sweater as you go along, so she gets to try it on many many times. You finally finish up the sweater, it's a tad long, but as fast as kids grow it will probably be the right length next week. You ask her nicely to put it on so that you can snap a picture of her wearing her snazzy new sweater. You end up taking a picture of a hanger wearing it on a tree out in your yard because 1 the lighting is better out there and 2 because now the kid refuses to try it on, and she's not going to fall for a bribe.

I picked up the accident report yesterday. I was blamed for the whole thing. The officer stated that I "drove in a way that was unsafe causing the accident". I guess he believes that I would willingly pit my brand new mini against an F 150 pick up truck. In reading the summons, and the report I realized that he pegged me as guilty before he even spoke to me. So I guess the rule is, that if you know the cops and you drive a huge truck in Colorado you can make an illegal left turn into traffic cutting people off, you can then tail gate honking, rearend the car in front of you and you are not at fault, it is the fault of the people you cut off and who you rear end. Just thinking of it makes me want to go chew another xanax.

A sweater to match my mood, and my new good luck necklace

You can't see it in this picture but today I found a little something that I'd ordered for myself from a friend for good luck. You must go to http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=34360 and buy something from my buddy Heather. I love love love it.

I've been working on this sweater for about a month (other things to knit like gifts got in the way so the sweater often got left alone, and it didn't finish itself). Finally, it's finished. The color almost matches my poor little wrecked car, but I won't think of that, instead I'll share this photo taken by the most impatient photographer in the land (my 15 year old)

Stress muddles the mind

I had knitted my girlfriend a smoke ring and matching yoga socks for her birthday (not really to be worn together, since I doubt that she'd need the smoke ring while doing yoga, and she probably wouldn't need the yoga socks while walking the dog). I was going to take a picture of the yoga socks before I gave them to her, but stress being what it is I was lucky to remember to work the yarn ends in before wrapping her gift and giving it to her over lunch on Saturday with a bunch of girlfriends, because....well....my girlfriend turned 50!!

I held myself together over the weekend. Barely. But really I cried and cried and have spent more time in bed than I think I ever have except perhaps when I had a staph infection. Monday night I broke out in hives. I have never had hives before, but my mind has had the guy who rear ended me's voice screaming in my head. So Tuesday I went in to see my physicians assistant (I like him better than the doctor) and he told me that I have "Post Traumatic Stress" and gave me some xanax. I'm not so sure that I like the xanax. I mean, I like the fact that it quiets the guy in my heads screaming voice so that I can sleep. But it makes me tired and mutes all emotion. I took half of one Tuesday afternoon just to stop the shaking and uncontrollable crying, and half Tuesday night and half last night so that I could sleep. I am starting to feel emotionally better. I am very grateful that my daughter and I weren't hurt in the accident, but I am still very very sad that my pretty shiny car is all crunched up and I have to go to court to prove that it is not my fault that I got rear-ended (personally I think that it is ridiculous that this guy could even try to say that it is my fault).

But soon I'll have pictures for here......

My poor little wrecked car

On my non knitting blog a woman asked not long ago how are the drivers in your area and how do you drive. Yesterday the drivers in my area were out enforce as I slowed down and put on my turn signal to turn right (actually I'd slowed down earlier because there was a car several lengths behind me that I wanted to look at). I started into my right turn, on the green light, when suddenly from the left appears a big white truck honking at me. He'd gunned it through the intersection. I proceded with my turn, and had this guy behind me honking (I didn't look in the rearview mirror, so I have no idea how close he was, but the sound coming in through the moon roof would say he was fairly close). Traffic was heavy and there was a car making a turn up ahead. I am not in the habit of racing up on people when they're turning or stopping as I am of the thought that doing so is not safe. I stepped on the brake to slow down (but not on the clutch to down shift) and the big honking truck behind me hit me. Because I didn't push in the clutch the car stalled and wouldn't restart. The guy starts screaming at me that I gunned it and was half a block away when he started his turn. Hmmmm I wonder how the car that was in front of me turning left would have felt about that, if I gunned it to hug their bumper. The car I'd been trying to see was now behind honking truck guy and the guy in the nice convertible let me use his phone to call my husband and gave me his card (which I foolishly gave the police, but my son knows this man's son) and told me if I needed a witness to give him a call. The policeman took an uncomplimentary report from honking truck guy and told me that convertible guy called the accident in, but said he saw nothing. Bullshit, the guys son told my son that his dad said I did nothing wrong.

So my car is in the shop with a huge dent in it's rear end and it won't run. We push started it so that engineer boy could take it to the body shop and it died on the freeway, so the accident did something to the computer. I have, I think, I mild case of whiplash. Girlchild calls the guy that hit us "that bad man that yelled at mommy". I'd break my deal with myself and buy some yarn to ease the ouchie feelings, but I'm not in the mood. Besides all my money for yarn will probably go into car repairs and lawyer fees.

A challenge

In perusing blogs the other day I came across one that had a "Use what you have month" button. I don't know how to post buttons on my blog, and I've since discovererd that "Use what you have month" is a year round thing and you can sign up for whatever month you wish to abstain from purchasing craft supplies (for whatever craft/s you participate in). I really like that idea and decided that April will be my "Use what I have" month (May is a possibility too). I have enough yarn for 3 sweaters for myself, a sweater for the girlchild, two or three (possibly more depending on how far I can stretch the yarn) pairs of socks, and three or four (or five) scarves (or shawls depending upon my mood) and cotton for probably half a dozen wash clothes. I am reasonably sure that, while this is NOT the biggest stash in the land, it has the ability to keep me occupied for at least a month and since I'm not the fastest knitter in the land, I'm betting it could keep me occupied for several months. Especially if you factor in the yarn I have for hospital hats (I don't really count that as part of my stash because it's not really mine).

So there's my proclamation. I will not buy so much as knitting needles or yarn for the month of April. Nor will I buy sewing supplies (unless, of course it's white thread or needles for the machine, as I do take in hemming jobs for the karate students in the kids karate class)

April Fools, Flashless Stashless and other nonsense

I was simply to lazy and too unmotivated to flash my stash especially after seeing Wendy 's picture. Really, she is most imaginative (and my figure is not nearly as good as hers). I thought about taking a picture of a lone skein of yarn and posting as a sort of April fools, but eh not imaginative. Besides there were so many other things to do like grocery shopping (there's a Whole Foods in Denver that is just heaven to visit), and playing with kids and knitting. There's always knitting.

I think it's safe to post this picture. My sister is out of town and (hopefully) not checking here and if she is, sorry for ruining your surprise Crissy. Every girl needs a little sparkle in her life. Here the sparkle is provided by Disco Sock yarn (the skeins were opposite of each other and because I swear I am retarded they are fraternal twin socks instead of identical twin socks). I also swear that the yarn hated me from the time I first cast on the socks. I feel like I have knit on them forever and I hope she enjoys them (I know she will).....and here they are: