A sad ending

My mother in law passed away. The sister in law that won't speak to us called. I tried to tell her that we love her and wish to put bygones in the past. She told me that she wants her brother to apologize for hanging up on her (she was screaming at him so loud in a drunken rage that I could hear her from across the room) . I told her that I wouldn't apologize and that I'd have done the same thing. She hung up on me. This is the same woman who screamed at her own mother "I'm glad you have cancer and I hope that you're afraid to die", so her hanging up on me when I calmly tell her that I'd have done the same thing, means nothing. It means nothing because as far as I am concerned she no longer exists.

But that said. My mother in law was an extraordinary person. She would have said no, but she was a tough old bird with a really big heart and I'll miss her terribly.

A thank you for a friend

Last week my youngest son had surgery and a girlfriend of mine picked up girlchild from kindergarten for me and kept her for a good portion of the day. I was especially appreciative of this because this friend doesn't have a kindergartener this year, nor does she have a girl (she does have 2 wonderful boys). To thank her I knit her a pair of socks which my neighbor's dog was so kind to model for me (they are too big for my feet and Blaze was holding still, so I thought he'd hold them for me).

Thanksgiving is now over, the boychild is feeling like himself again, bless his little heart. My mother in law is holding onto life in a hospital 3 states away and I am afraid that we are going to lose her very very soon. I wish that knitting could ease that pain away.

Frog pond

It seems that's where all of my projects are going these days. Perhaps if I could count to 80 (or 16, or 5) consistently I wouldn't have to rip out so much. Or maybe, just maybe, if swatches didn't lie. My knitting karma just isn't lately and I've fallen back to the old standby project. Socks. I'm knitting a girlfriend a pair because she kindly picked up girlchild from kindergarten yesterday and kept her because youngest boy child needed surgery and neither my husband nor myself could figure out how we could be in two places at one time. I'll post pictures once the socks are finished (if I remember). I've tried about a dozen times to knit a shawl. Print o the wave. I was rewinding the yarn (laceweight) when it flew off of the winder. I had a fit and threw the mess across the room. The husband fetched it, untangled and rewound the mess and banned me from knitting it for a while (I told him to just throw the mess away). I'm sure that didn't make the yarn Gods happy and I'll have to cast on that stole/shawl at least another dozen times before I manage to remember how to count to 80 more than 5 times. I'm just hoping to keep it out of the frog pond when I decide to (once again) cast it on.

A little knitting happens

Both of my younger children like to have a small rug outside their bedroom door. I'm not sure why, but they do. The girlchild has a pink and lavender rug made from strips of fabric and fashioned together using the end of a toothbrush (no, not the bristly part, I thought that it was funny to find that they actually sell a toothbrush tool!) The one in front of boy child's room (not the silly boy with the ugly hat) is made from left over loops from one of those little looms the kids make potholders on....or in the case of my children they ask me to show them how to make the potholder, I make one, they make about half of one and wander off asking me to finish it for them because "it's too hard". The rug is nice and springy, but the gauge is all lopsided because 1. Some of the loops are thick and some are thin and 2. It is really weird to keep an even tension with nylon loops. But the 8 year old thinks that its fabulous.

And then we have the hat. It was the fastest knit ever at 3 stitches to the inch. We now have a Wally World nearby, which is great when you have a kindergartener and live you life in 2.5 hour increments. I can never stray far from home because it's always time to either drop a child off at school, or pick them up. Our little town doesn't have much, but in the last 2 months they've opened up a Wally World (and a Kohl's) close enough that I can actually shop if I need something instead of waiting for the weekend. The tall silly boy works across the parking lot from Wally World and because he doesn't have his license yet, I find myself driving him to and from work, and naturally after work he likes to stop by Wally's (especially if he has some tip money to spend). He decided that I should knit him an ear flap hat. I planned wool, I planned on ordering some nice soft wool, in nice normal colors. Maybe something felted slightly. He planned cheap-o yarn from Walmart in ridiculous colors. But it really does fit his personality. The pattern is just one I culled from the free stuff on the internet, I'm not wild about it, but perhaps I'll knit him another one. In wool. From a yarn shop (or a catalog, since until kindergarten is over the yarn shops are too far for me to get to and return in time to fetch kids from school).