Miss Stella July 23, 1993 - Nov 3, 2007

Goodbye sweet Stella. Thank you for a little over 14 years of love. You'll be missed.

An old dog

For the knitting part of this post I'll say that there is a pattern in "More Sensational Socks" (page 23, heel flap for a 70 stitch sock) that I can't for the life of me get to turn correctly. I honestly think that there's a mistake in the book, I've never had such a time turning a heel. I ripped the sock back and I just can't work up the mojo (so to speak) to cast on another sock at the moment.

I made the call this morning. Miss Stella will go and see the vet for the last time on Saturday morning. She would not come downstairs this morning and left a puddle on carpet at the top of the stairs. She wouldn't stand up and walk and I finally had Robert help me to carry her downstairs where I fed her (being a golden retriever I figured that she'd lose the ability to walk before she lost the will to eat, tho lately she's not been the best eater in the world either). We got her settled and she finally got up and staggered/fell into the den and in front of the chair she likes to lay in, so Robert helped her up into it. She stayed there for four hours, before climbing out. She has a hard time on our wood floors lately and today she's not been able to navigate them at all. Robert helped me get her out to the front yard where she'd walk a step and fall, I'd help her up and we'd repeat the process. At one point she decided she was going to play and in trying to run (hard when you can't even stand) she spun and fell. We let her rest for a bit then carried her back into the house. She just staggered from her bed by the front door (when we hauled her downstairs we put her bed at the bottom of the stairs, next to the living room rug) and is asleep at my feet under the desk. Her quality of life has deteriorated to pretty much nothing and I think that it's time. I can't bear to think of not having her around, but I can't bear to think that she'd have to give up what is left of her dignity if I were to keep her here. She's been the best dog a person could ask for for the past 14 years. Pets, they brighten up your life, but they also break your heart.

Socks for girl child

Girl child loves hand knit socks, but sadly fitting her has been pretty hit and miss. I knit her up some lacy socks a while back and the lace was not stretchy (as lace should be), she likes those socks but it's hard for her to put them on. These are nice and stretchy and fit her quite well, should be no problems with putting them on! The 17 year old is asking for me to knit him some socks, methinks he should learn to knit. Besides I just knit him an earflap hat!

Busy days around here lately with parent teacher conferences, a jury summons, doctors appointments, optometrists appointment, karate lessons. It's been a while since I've looked at the calendar and told the kids "gosh we have nothing going on for a few days"!

Fires

My oldest son lives with his grandmother (his father's mom) in Pasadena. He's lived out in California with his father for the past little over 5 years. Every now and again he talks about moving back in with us, but I think that he likes the hustle and bustle of Southern California. I never grew to like the hustle and bustle growing up in California, and would rarely venture south of Santa Barbara, nor would I often go north of Paso Robles (actually my comfort range was fairly limited). But Colin has thrived living out there.

I talked to him this morning about how close the fires are to where he is. He assured me that the smoke isn't too bad and that the fires are still a ways away. He said that they're probably half an hour's drive from home (which given the tendencies of uncontrolled fires is far too close for his concerned mom). He promised that he would call me if they have to evacuate. I'm sure that his grandmother has places she can go to, and Colin's father lives in San Diego hopefully not in the path of the fire, tho Colin said that his dad's fiancee's school (she's a teacher) had classes cancelled due to the fire. But he knows that my family is to the North out of the reach of the fire and they are watching the fire and worrying too.

He mentioned when we were on evacuation alert during the Hayman fire here. How weird it felt to box up photographs and to try to figure out what we'd take. My mom was here visiting during that time and was terribly upset because I refused to hire a moving van and empty my house. We didn't have to evacuate so we still have out house and our belongings. I learned alot when Chris and I were first married and there was a terrible fire in Santa Barbara (1989ish). Chris was in Korea on business with his boss and called me because his boss had been unable to reach his wife. He gave me the address of his bosses house and I had to inform him that every house on that street had burned to the ground. His boss's wife had taken some relatives to the airport and could not get back to their house. They lost everything, their house, their horses, dogs, cats. Everything. So, had we had to evacuate during the Hayman fire, we still would have been blessed.

I am sure that my son will be safe. Hopefully soon the fires will be out.

The Cross Hatch lace sock and my favorite model

Here is my dear Stella holding Girl child's "Cross Hatch Lace" sock. I've just cast on the second sock and perhaps when I get it done I'll have girl child model both of them for me. Amelia mentioned my darling footrest and I thought perhaps I'd tell a little bit about my model/footrest. This picture (minus the sock) is pretty much what I see when I am sitting at the computer and look down. Miss Stella. Miss Stella was a gift from my husband a little more than 14 years ago after my first miscarriage (I've had 4). When she came to live with us she was a 6 week old ball of fluff. She's dried many a tear, and shared much much laughter and many many good times. Now she's 14 (she turned 14 in June), nearly blind, nearly deaf and quite stiff...tho she still plays and is just as sweet as can be. Because she is so calm and patient it is easy for me to toss my knitted goods on her and have her "hold" them for me to photograph. She never complains and will hold perfectly still for hours on end (sometimes prompting us to hold a mirror under her nose). She is in the twilight of her life and I simply can't bear to think of her no longer here to put up with my warming my feet on her, or perching my knitting goods on her. Jenny (the sawed off hound) just isn't the same.

It snowed last night and I need to shovel off the back deck. Old Stella can't navigate the stairs especially in the snow, so she has "deck potty privileges" when she was a young thing she got in trouble for pottying on the deck, but with age comes privileges. She's earned them. So perhaps I'll go and shovel off the deck for my dear little old lady, and then settle in with the mate to that sock.

Where did I learn to count?

So, I finished my mom's first sock. You know, I mentioned my mothers ridiculously small feet....she wears a woman's 4.5 (childrens 2) and I wear oh, say a 7.5 (or an 8 depending upon the shoe). I measured the sock as I knitted along. I put the sock on my 9 year old son's foot (since he wears a children's size 4 shoe, I figured that it should be in the right size ballpark, as I decreased the toe. I finished up that bad boy and looked at the lovely lovely sock..........

Lookie there, I think that my mom's lovely sock will fit my sister perfectly....think she'd like a pair of lovely blue socks for Christmas? I swear the toe must have added a foot in length to these. Because that foot in the picture is mine...my size 7.5 foot. Perhaps it's Karma, I kept saying that mom wouldn't like them, but I was going to knit her socks anyway because she keeps dropping hints. Methinks that the fact that these came out much much too large is a sign (of course it could be a sign that I should keep them and not gift them to my sister, but really if I do know one thing, I know that my sister loves her hand knit socks...especially if she doesn't have to knit them).

Another Friday

I'm sitting here balancing the checkbook, no...really I am toiling away at balancing the checkbook. Of course I do find balancing the check book to be less than thrilling so I do have to have a break to check ravelry (because I obviously have time to knit all of the projects I find. and it's fun to look at other people's projects), oh and perhaps a break to open and close the door a thousand times for the dog who feels it is her duty to go in and out like a yoyo (that will change when it snows, then I'll have to throw her out). Yep, I'm balancing the checkbook so that I can knit when I'm done...oh! Look! A cloud in the sky. Okay....focus (and finish my cup of coffee that should help with my focusing powers).

Okay, checkbook is balanced. Some of my yarn is photo graphed. Middle son just shook his head as I'm photographing sock yarn (he said I should dump out the garbage bag full of yarn our neighbor gifted to me and show that, but I'm not quite ready to do that. I told him to get back to school....he goes to online high school).

The only project I have on needles at the moment (for some reason I'm not one to have multiple projects going, sometimes I'll have a sweater AND socks, or a sweater AND a hat, but rarely do I have 5 or 6 things going at a time) is a pair of socks for my mom for Christmas. Since she wears a children's sized 2 shoe I'm anticipating a quick knit. The yarn is some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock I bought a ton of from ebay last year, the pattern is Twin rib from Charlene Schurch's "Sensational Sock" book. I hope that mom likes her socks since once they're done they won't fit anyone else in the family. The only person with feet smaller than my mom's is my 6 year old daughter. So if mom doesn't like the socks instead of strangling her with them we'll give them to girl child.

And now, enough with the rambling, I have things to do and some knitting to get done (and housework, always housework) before our Friday night racketball-a-thon.

Later gators!

I'm in!!

Got my invite into Ravelry yesterday and started looking around. I'm not terribly computer savvy so we'll see what I can do there, I know it shouldn't be hard but I don't spend all that much time on the computer (tho some days it feels like I never leave the computer).

In knitting news I am now the proud owner of both of Charlene Schurch's books "Sensational Socks" and "More Sensational Socks". Those socks in the picture aren't from either book, but are pretty much my basic sock with a gull stitch down the side. I knit them up in Colonette something wild (I have no idea what happened to the ball band, those things seem to disappear the moment I wind the hank of yarn, I think the kids take them). I had about 6 yards of yarn left when I finished the socks which amazed me because my feet are pretty much standard issue size (7.5 ish). Now that I've finished those socks I do have a pair from "Sensational Socks" in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock (a score from E-bay) for my mother for Christmas. She has exceptionally small feet (Children's size 2) so it will be a quick knit!

I need to get with the program

I finished girl child's sweater and cast on for a pair of socks (Colinette, some wild color, my own design as far as socks go). I obviously forgot how to knit socks and had to rip the first sock out twice before I got it right...and for some reason I can't muck up a sock until I reach the instep. I can't mess up on the ribbing, no I have to wait until the thing is half done before I decide that it won't fit the way I expect it to. Pictures perhaps soon. For my upcoming birthday I ordered (both) Sensational Socks and More Sensational Socks by Charlene Schurch. I expect them to arrive next week and am knitting madly on the second sock of the pair mentioned a moment ago, so that when the books arrive I'm ready to cast on another sock. Oh, maybe I'll go and dig through the sock yarn stash and wind some into a tidy ball so that when the books arrive I don't even have to pause to wind yarn......

My Design.....

Isn't she just too cute, oh yea and the sweater isn't too bad either. Girl child has asked and asked for a blue sweater shirt. I'd seen cute sweater top in an ad and thought that it would be a fairly quick knit if I knit it up in Cotton-ease. Not the greatest yarn, but hey it's machine washable and we're talking about a kid here who is hard on her clothes (that said the hand knit ones seem to hold up forever). So I cast on with the idea that it would be v-neck-ish and immediately decided that perhaps a nice tie would work for the neck (and keep in on her little shoulders). So I knit and knit and decided that perhaps a little textural interest would be nice across the front and around the bottom (which I have now ripped out because the princess asked me to make the sweater longer, this is the reason that I knit from the top down) As I picked up the stitches for the sleeves I decided that ties on the sleeves might add a bit of fun and interest too.

So, here we have the sweater....before the frogging of the hem in order to add an inch or three in length.

Pattern: In my empty head (pretty much a basic top down, custom fit to my skinny child)
Yarn: Cotton ease because there's no yarn store nearby and no matter how fast shipping is there's not a company who could get me the yarn with the speed with which girl child wished. Besides, I was lazy and cheap. That and at Michaels she could touch and feel the yarn.
Needles: Size 8 for the sweater size 7 for the "hem"

Knitters and Muggles

Koigu footies. I've decided that I rather like footies, especially for summertime wear. That and they're a great way to use up odd skeins of sock yarn. I'm sure that I'll have some in much wilder color patterns as I use up ends of skeins. My one rule is that if it is 100% sock wool I won't mix it with a blend (unless the blend is for the heels and toes giving extra wear, not that I'm hard on my socks because I'm quite the opposite).

I read knitting blogs. Not a lot of them, but a few. It's fun to read other peoples ideas and I've found more than one pattern by reading blogs. There is one that I enjoy very very much. The woman has been a knitter for years and years and she's really quite funny and her blog is fun. She has named those who do not knit, or who are not knowledgeable about knitting as "Muggles". Muggles I know are from "Harry Potter" and are people who are innocent to witchcraft and wizardry and, I tend to agree with another blogger that I enjoy in that I find that giving people who do not knit a name feels like a "us and them" sort of thing. Now I'm not criticizing either of these women, their blogs, their points of view or whatever they had for lunch today. I'm just throwing out random thoughts tonight. I've been knitting forever and have never thought about being a knitter, or a non knitter or whatever. I knit when it wasn't cool.....I wasn't a knitter.....I was a nerd. I guess I've never really thought of people not being "in the know" as far as knitting is concerned because knitting is just a part of who I am, like the fact that I can sew, or quilt, or I'm right handed and I have brown eyes. Not long ago a friend and I dropped her and my kids off at Water World and we had the whole day to goof off. We headed over to Boulder and stopped into a yarn shop. My friend is not a knitter but she found many many things to amuse her while we were there. It was nice to have the company knitter or not. I say let the people stare, let them ask questions or think of you as a granny or perhaps they think that you're really really cool. I hear that knitting is back in again. One of our high schools (probably more than just one, but the one that I've had kids attend) actually has a knitting group....how cool is that?! Back in the 70's these kids would have been laughed at, and now they're the cool ones.

It's late and I'm not sure that my ramblings all make sense, but for now.....good knit and knit on!

Prayers

A friend has been going through a lot with one of her daughters. Her daughter has been diagnosed with a form of neuropathy. My mother in law suffered from neuropathy, but hers didn't begin until she was an adult, my friends daughter is still a child. I've never met this friend in "real life", but she's sent care packages to my youngest son when he had to have his tonsils out, and when he's had a rough time in school. If you could look up kindness and beauty in the dictionary I am sure that you would see Aleta's picture there. This shawl was a learning experience for me. I know that Aleta and her dear husband are going through a far more painful learning experience and I wish I could make it easier for them. Each stitch of this shawl is a prayer, and I sent it off to her with hopes that she can feel my love for her family.

Yellow

I knit hats for the hospital that my last two babies were born in. When I brought them home they were wearing a hand knitted hat knit by a volunteer and I thought that when my babies got old enough that I could knit again (for so long it seemed like I had a choice, I could knit while they were asleep or I could sleep. Sleep often won). So I've been knitting hats for a few years now. As word has gotten out that I knit hats for the hospital I get donations of yarn. Which is really really nice and helpful (only sometimes does the hospital seem to have yarn to use). My very own mother has been one of the bigger contributors of yarn. The hospital volunteer ladies post that the preferred colors for the baby hats are blue or pink (or white. Or the varigated baby colors). So naturally my mom has drowned me in yellow yarn. So to disguise this yarn I knit lacy baby hats and basket weave hats with a touch of blue. Really in the winter it doesn't matter the color of the hat because when the baby leaves the hospital all you see is a pile of baby blankets covering a car seat carrier.

This is what the hospital is getting when I next drop off the hats:

















My sister sent me some of the tofutsies yarn and I knit a pair of socks and a pair of footies from the yarn:

I have another picture to post, but it is a gift for a friend and I don't want to mention it here until I know the gift has arrived safely at it's destination. But one hint. It's not yellow.

Girlchild's shrug

My own design knit in that cheap Bernat cotton stuff (cotton-ease). Size 6ish.

More words later as I have an impatient teenager wanting to leave....

Pictures

This blog is probably read only by me especially since lately I can't seem to figure out how to manage a camera. I'm sure there's more images in the camera, but it's resisting my putting them where I know how to use them. but anyhow
it's not been a crazy busy knitting bit around here as is evidenced by the lack of blogging. Let's see pictures. There's a entrelac hat up there made for a mother from girlchild's kindergarten class who had a baby girl a couple of months ago. Then there's my old lady Stella, graciously modeling the thistle lace stole before I got it blocked, and later there's a picture of it on my porch swing (cleaner than the old dog) all washed and blocked and beautiful. And it's not a shadow, I got both pieces of the stole knit and went to weave them together and one side is considerable lighter than the other side! (I bought the yarn on ebay as seconds, and so it is. In real life it looks as tho I planned it that way). The socks are a pair I knit for my sister, who now asks for handknit socks for every gift giving occaision. There's a couple of other baby things I've knitted, but they seem to be lost in the land of the pictures that loaded up in a program I haven't learned yet (I can see them, but am not sure how to move them and actually I can't even find the ones I was looking for....of course I didn't look very hard because it is late and I'm tired).

The husband is travelling this week so I'm alone with the kids and a steady stream of questions, most of which I think they ask just to irritate me. No matter how many times they ask dad will be back on Friday, and asking a thousand times an hour will not make Friday come any faster. Oy! So the house is quiet and the husband is gone, I think I'll hoist the old dog up the stairs and go have some tea and knit.

Yarn Harlot and a few pictures

I feel like I've been away for forever and a day. We've been having "teenage" issues which seem to eat all of my time and energy. I keep telling myself that I will survive, but I'm not so sure about my sanity (I've got one almost done with the teen age years, one that's giving me a thousand gray hairs a second and two who won't be teenagers for several more years).

I did get to take a (much needed) break from the teenaged "stuff" and go to see the Yarn Harlot speak. Oh what fun I had! It was great to laugh and laugh and to be able to bring my knitting and not have people look at me like I was some sort of alien. I even got my book signed and gave her some stitch markers that girlchild made for her.

I have other miscellanous knitting pictures that I'll upload later. My computer time is fairly stunted since it seems that going through high school wasn't enough back in the 70's when I was of high school age. No, it seems that my son can't manage to get himself to school on a regular basis (like enough to actually pass high school) so today after I dropped off my younger ones at school I headed over to the high school to sit in class with my middle boy. As soon as I left to pick his sister up, he left too and didn't return to class. So I guess now I'll drop off the younger ones at school, go sit in his classes with him, fetch the youngest from kindergarten and take her to the high school with me to sit in the rest of his class with him (the boy only has 2 two and a half hour classes a day, one would think that he could manage to show up). The only plus to this is that 1: There's only a month left of this school year (and there's a fair chance that he'll be going to a boarding school next year and 2: Because there's no phones for me to answer, or laundry or toilets for me to clean at the school I got 2 uninterrupted hours of knitting done in class today (I feel that I've already done high school so I'm not taking notes or answering questions). But this high school stuff really bites into every other aspect of my life (like laundry, housekeeping, shopping and such)

Yarn Harlot and more pictures coming soon!!

I promise!! Pictures and my tale of getting to listen to the Yarn Harlot speak coming soon.......

Still knitting

And I've actually done more than just a pair of socks and a baby hat, but this is all I've taken photos of (okay, it's all that is photo ready and at that I took the sock picture a few weeks ago and the hat picture last week). It seems that everyone (but not me thankfully) is expecting. A co-worker of the husband's, the gym teacher at the elementary school, the office lady at the elementary school, another parent in kindergarten and a parent in my son's second grade class. Plus, there are birthdays to knit for and a shawl for moi knit out of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock (thanks to the great shopping store known as ebay).

I really need more hours in my day. Me thinks if I quit shopping at the great online garage sale known as ebay I might find at least some minutes in my day (and besides I believe that I have enough yarn, supersock anyway, to keep me busy and off the streets for a while)

RIP Sammy boy

Not long ago Sammy posed for this picture. This was kind of in the middle of his decline. When he adopted me 17 years ago he was a mangy, sad little cat. The house where he technically lived had a bunch of big dogs and the cat was left pretty much on his own. I would leave the back door open so that my oldest son could go out and play in the back yard (I was pregnant with my middle son) and often as soon as I opened the door the cat would appear begging for food and attention (and he loved kids). When we moved to Colorado I'd invested quite a bit of time fattening up this guy, so I took him into the vet had him neutered and got his shots and took him with me. He filled out to a nice 16 to 18 pound cat (his top weight was 18 pounds, the vet whined that he should "lose a few"). He thought he was a dog and if I went outside to visit the neighbors here he'd come to visit too. He was a chatty fellow and enjoyed always getting the last word in in any conversation. This past year his health started to slip. Not a lot, but he lost a little weight and just slowed down a bit as old cats do. In the past couple of months he became a shadow of himself and I questioned how well he could see/hear/smell and he got a little thinner. Day before yesterday my daughter dropped her pillow off the couch and it landed on Sam's tail and he yowled because he was not strong enough to pull his tail out from underneath the pillow (folks this was not a big or heavy pillow). I'd been portioning out his food for quite a while, but in the last couple of weeks he was only able to eat a tablespoon or so of wet food (I kept dry food out all the time for him and he'd nibble at that), but then he'd throw it up.

Yesterday I called the vet and took Sammy in and held him while he went to kitty heaven. I decided that to keep him alive would be cruel to him and he deserved to leave this earth with what little dignity he still had. My dear 18 pound cat weighed 8.5 pounds. The house is sure quiet without him. He had an opinion about everything and like I said, he always got in the last word. There will be no more cats for me. I've had a cat all of my life, but this is the first time in my life that nearly everyone I know is allergic to them. And living where I do cats have to be indoors or they become wild animal food. I was always amazed that Sam lived as long as he did. about 9 years ago something did get him and I found him lying in my flower bed all chewed up, after that I didn't have to fight with him to get him to come in at night. The last few years of his life he only wandered away from the house if I was visiting with the neighbors, then he'd come and sit at my feet like a dog otherwise he liked to go out and sun himself on the deck.

I sure miss him.

I am still here

I finished up a pair of socks. I even took a picture of them but have been too lazy to load said picture onto the computer, crop and post it (at the moment I'm not even sure where the camera is and I'm not looking for it).

My father in law has been in and out of the hospital like a yoyo. Poor guy has had pneumonia in his one lung and is fighting heart issues. My mother in law has only been gone since Thanksgiving and I'm sure that it's an adjustment after 60 years of marriage to be alone. I am truly looking forward to seeing him this summer. I wish he lived closer (or we lived closer).

I've lost all contact with my brother, except when his wife finds my blogs and decides to leave little nastygrams. I miss him, shoot, I even miss my sister in law, but I miss the them before all of the drug problems and money "borrowing" and crap. That was causing much much heartache, but I'm dealing with it and while the heartache will always be there, I'm learning to let go of the stress part of it.

And knitting. Pictures soon. Not much knitting as far as new and exciting projects. I finished a pair of socks. This seems to be a ......fertile....time of year (Good Lord, NOT me!! I am too old), the attendance clerk at our elementary school is expecting her first, the gym teacher at the schools wife is expecting his first, and a co-worker of my husband's is expecting their first. So, I'm knitting hats and booties. I really need to knit up a few baby things and put up just for these events so that I don't feel like the old lady who lives in a shoe when it comes to knitting baby things. Very very soon I am going to knit up some grown up sized things again because..... birthdays are coming up and socks are always the perfect gift.

Later!

Random projects.

Lets see how did the photos load on here (I never manage to get them where I want them to be). I made girlchild a pair of socks, she's quite thrilled with them and stopped only for a second for me to snap a picture of them....well, long enough to snap a picture of the bottom of her foot with stuff stuck to the sock. They are purple with a pink ruffle, toes and heels. Knit from Knitpicks essential sock yarn (which I don't think it's very "essential" as far as sock yarn is concerned, I've knit a few pair from the KP essential yarn and think that I'll fork out the dough for Lorna's Laces or some other higher quality sock yarn....that said, for children's socks nothing beats cheap she'll outgrow the socks before they wear out). Then we have and Estonian sampler scarf knit from KP stuff (all I remember is the color is "Happydance") We have the blocked version shown here and the unblocked version as modeled by my very old cat (he's about 18 years).

Knitting time comes in bits and spurts these days. I am currently working on a pair of socks for moi from Lorna's Laces in "jeans" (or something like that, I'm currently too lazy to go find the ball band and am relying on my unreliable memory. The yarn is shades of blue and white if that helps). I have other things I should cast on, but for the moment my mind can only wrap itself around one project on the needles at a time so that is what I'm doing. One. Project. At. A. Time. Ug!

Using up yarn

I seem to be the queen of the wrong amount of yarn these days. Anyway, this scarf is something I came up with all on my own. It's a fern lace pattern blocked to about 7.5 inches wide and 64 inches long. I finished it up last night and blocked it and haven't worn it yet, so we'll see how I like it later. The yarn is Knitpicks Memories in Fly Fishing. I used about a hank and a half (I had about half a hank left over from some other project).

We've definitely had the weather lately for scarves (and hats, I think I may need to knit up some hats!)

Sleigh Bells Ring and a snow storm

If you read this blog at all you'd think that I knit very little, but the opposite is actually true. I have a friend who thinks it's odd that, for the most part, I only have 1 or 2 projects going at a time, and I finish them before moving on. Truly this is a most recent phenomenom. Usually I have many projects going on at one time and I work on them as the feeling moves me. Lately the feeling has moved me to work on one project at a time and to finish it up before moving on. But all of that goes out the window at Christmas. About 30 years ago my mother knit me a scarf. My middle boy discovered that scarf and has been using it even though he, like me 30 years ago, says it's too short. So I bought some uber-cheap Red Heart and cast on this mistake rib scarf. I figured that I can give it to him for Christmas, and he can tell me what he does and doesn't like about it, and if he uses it and doesn't lose it I'll knit him up one in a more natural fiber that acrylic that squeaks across the needles. This bad boy is in maroon and black and is a little over 6 feet long. I even put fringe on it (even though I loathe fringe):






The snow it is sitting in is courtesy of Mother Nature. Mother Nature decided that Colorado needed several feet of snow just before Christmas. My youngest son was complaining that it didn't feel like Christmas because there wasn't much snow on the ground. Then he was complaining because the snow closed down the school (and the roads and the state) meaning that there's no class holiday parties this year. Ya just can't win.

But today, the sun is shining and the biggest snow blower I've ever seen drove down our street clearing a path as wide as a Surburban (I know because a Surburban drove down the road shortly after the ginormous snow blower) so we can get out and go to the store and see if there's anything left to buy there. And, much to the happiness of my kids.....we won't have whatever is left in the freezer for Christmas dinner.

Stress knitting

This is my latest project. The yarn is Knitpicks swish superwash and the pattern is a picture I have in my head which is why I'm knitting it from the top down and have finished the neckline (ribbing and all) so that I can try it on as I go and see if the actual sweater matches the picture in my mind. So far so good.

I heard through the family that my brother and sister in law are still having "issues". It breaks my heart because they have pretty much written us (my brother's family) out of their lives. Because of the problems (drugs) there is nothing that I can do to help them (already tried and was burned). They need to make important decisions on their own. And so I knit. I knit because it is a stress release. I knit because it's like meditation, or perhaps it is meditation. All I know is that I feel calmer when I have my needles in my hand. Back when my brother was still talking to me, I was sitting in his kitchen with our mom, my husband and my brother's wife. We were going over what their drug habit had cost them financially and how they could get back onto track. I sat with my knitting in my hand and my brother asked me about it. I told him that when I'm nervous or stressed I knit. He asked what did I have to be stressed about. This man that has been my brother all of his life, this man who has a heroin addiction and whose wife shares that addiction (along with an alcohol problem and painkiller problem). This man who is the father to my two nieces asked me what I had to be stressed about. This man who I have recently found out is still using and has cut me from his life. There's not enough yarn or needles in this world to help my stress. But one stitch at a time I meditate and pray.

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).

little pink socks

Girlchild has asked me and asked me to make her some socks. She wanted pink (actually she'd like the pink and green Lorna's Laces, but she got pink and purple KnitPicks). The pattern is a combination. I loved the pink lace socks from Jeanie Townsend's yahoo group, but it was written for a grown up foot, so I took the ruffled edge and scaled it down to girlchild's size, I then plugged the lace stitch from the grown up version into my standard sock pattern and instead of just having a lacy ankle I decided to run the lace down to the toe. After a couple of starts and having to rip back, here is the result. And the nice thing is I have enough yarn left over to make her a pair of purple socks with a pink ruffle and pink heel and toe accents!

Another birthday

It's another birthday. A birthday which was spent at the dentist's office this morning (for me) and again this afternoon (for my youngest son). Luckily I enjoy my dentist and all of his office staff (the hygenist will be my neighbor in about 3 weeks) and I could think of worse ways to spend my birthday.

I keep another blog for personal stuff, this one is mostly knitting stuff (my other blog can be found at www.xanga.com/cherim but because it's my birthday I will share what I posted over there:

Because today is both my birthday and the anniversary of my dad's death I am going to share a childhood story. When I was small, about 7 years old, we went to an auction. There was all kinds of livestock there and I don't remember the reason that we were there in the first place, but we ended up with an "Americana pony" named Topper (his registered name was "Rick-lan-repetition") He was a beautiful bay colored pony (smaller than a horse, but bigger trhan a welsh or shetland pony, he looked like a small beautiful horse). He was green broke and needed a lot of work before any of us children would be able to ride him. My mom was too pregnant (with my sister) to ride him and my dad, while not a big man, was too big to ride him, so he mostly just ate grass. My dad decided that he was too much horse for my brother and I and that we'd sell him and get something a little tamer (perhaps a shetland pony?) so some people came to look at Topper. Dad patted his neck and told them that he was as gentle as a lamb and that he'd show them. So dad (who was not a horseman in any way, he just wore the clothes) climbed aboard Topper who went straight up in the air and bucked just like you see in the rodeos. Dad stayed on for two bounces before coming off. Being supportive children and worrying about dad's welfare after he landed on the ground knocking the wind out of himself, we clapped and yelled "do it again daddy do it again!!" The people did not buy the horse, he eventually went to live with our neighbors. Several years later dad rode my horse (Paisana, an Arabian/Quarter horse mix) in a show.(It was 4-H and parents got to ride their childrens horses in a "parents show") . He won the booby prize. He never got the horse going in the direction or on the same gait as the other horses. That pretty much ended his horse career.

I have so many silly stories and my sister and I shared some of them tonight, some I'll share as I feel the need for a good hearty laugh. I miss him every day, but know that the last gift he could give to me was to be out of the terrible pain that cancer is. But I refuse to be sad on this day. The good points were today.....there was a key in my post office box signalling a package. And there it was some yarn and needles that I ordered (like I need more yarn or needles!). It snowed about 6 inches which is always beautiful. My favorite uncle called me (actually he's my great uncle and almost the only uncle I have left, but he's always been my favorite and he always calls me and sings me happy birthday). I've had several online friends and friends I see daily wish me happy birthday.

It's been a good day.

I am still knitting....

And perhaps when it's not so late, and I'm not so lazy, and the camera boots up to the computer faster I'll post a picture or ten. Lately it's been washcloths. My sister in law mentioned that she'd love hand knitted washcloths and I thought "What a great Christmas present!! A bunch of washcloths and some bath salts, maybe a candle". Then the psychotic sister in law calls and screams at my husband (her brother) so loudly that I could hear her from across the room before he hung up on her. (long drawn out family stuff, let's just say that this isn't unusual behavior for her). Now she's not speaking to us (or at least to him, I'm not sure where I stand in all of this....I try to avoid conflict as much as I can). I'm not sure now....do I gift the washcloths to myself....or hang on to them and still give them to her as planned. I'm leaning toward the give them to her as planned idea, just because.

I think I'll knit myself a sweater.....

And I thought that knitting was a stress reducer!

I woke up Saturday to the sound of our old golden retriever barking at the bottom of the stairs. So I went to go help her up them, problem was that as I reached the top of the stairs to walk down them I realized that I wasn't able to go down them. I was so dizzy that I went and crawled back into bed hoping that a few more minutes of sleep would chase away the vertigo. It didn't. All day long if I bent over at all I fell over. I didn't feel sick, my ears haven't been giving me any trouble (not that they do, but I figured perhaps it could be an inner ear thing). Sunday was a little better, but I was still kind of dizzy. So I hauled myself into the doctor on Monday morning. Told him that my blood pressure is still high (it's not been medicated and it's been running high for a couple of years), told him of my vertigo and of the 2 migraines I've had in the past week and a half. I had my blood pressure taken three times while I was there and was sent off with a prescription for high blood pressure medication (that the dear physicians assistant that I love, said would also help the headaches and that he didn't think that I had had a stroke or a series of them on Saturday, but that we do need to attend...finally...to the high bp). Oy. It's a scary thing to hear the word stroke, hearing that you didn't have one is refreshing, but stroke = scary. I'm a knitter. I haul my knitting everywhere with me. I especially knit if I'm under a lot of stress (oh like say, finding out that a family member has drug problems, or another family member or two has cancer...you know...stressful stuff). I thought that knitting was supposed to calm you down. I obviously don't knit enough. Do you think that this little scare could be my ticket to more knitting time? (yea right, I know, no matter what there's still only 24 hours in a day and a lot of stuff to get done....)

Peace

(paragraph that was here removed)

My mother in law received the shrug that I had knit for her. I finished it a couple of months ago, but hadn't gotten around to sending it off. When she got this diagnosis of cancer I boxed it up and sent it off along with a jar of chokecherry jelly that I made from the chokecherries that my youngest two children and I had picked. It was so nice to hear that it all arrived safely at their house and my mother in law sounded better than she has in ages. It doesn't change the diagnosis, nor does it shorten the time spent waiting for doctors appointments and test results, but they know I'm thinking about them. She said the wound on my father in laws head where they have biopsied the melanoma is healing. Hopefully it won't be all bad news once the results start rolling in.

I am ready for this year to be over, it has been most trying and I am sure that 2007 will be better....(good Lord it's only September!?)

more cancer

My father in law has it too.

Cancer

While I was visiting my inlaws over the summer and knitting one day my mother in law mentioned that she used to wear shrugs. I can't remember now how shrugs came up, I was knitting a washcloth or something else that is mind numbingly easy. They were just perfect for keeping your shoulders warm and that she'd enjoy having one again. We returned home and I found the perfect washable wool (at 82 years old, with neuropathy I didn't think she'd appreciate something that needed a lot of special care when washing) and I cast on. I got the thing knitted, but didn't send it off. I thought about it, but where she lived the temeratures were still about the same as the surface of the sun, and while they air condition their house I wasn't in a hurry to get it sent off. Every now and again I'd tell my husband that we should send it off or it would be her Christmas present (or her birthday present in January). A little voice had told me to hold off sending it for now, I'm sure of it.

A few weeks ago my mother in law was into the doctor for an MRI (or CAT scan I don't remember which) and a spot was found on her lung. Yesterday she called me and left a message that she had bad news please call her back, I thought that my elderly father in law had passed, I called her back. She broke down as I was talking to her so badly that when my husband called her a little later she couldn't talk to him. 8 years ago? it must be 10 years ago now or more because she had breast cancer before cancer took my dad (which was 8 years and 11 months ago). She had a mastectomy. Several years later (still several years ago) a small pocket of cancerous cells were found at the mastectomy site and they were removed, she was declared cancer free and I believe that she was given that Tamoxofin or whatever the medication is. She and her doctor were comfortable with foregoing the chemo (which I agree with even back then I don't think that she could have survived the chemo). The cancer is back, now it is in her lungs. She's so scared. I wish I could have crawled through the phone line to hold her while she cried. I wish that she could have talked to Chris, it was the most horrible thing I have had to tell Chris.

I packaged up that shrug and a jar of chokecherry jelly that I made from the chokecherries that my youngest two children and I picked and sent them off to her. And a prayer that whatever will be will be and that we will be able to accept what God has decided with grace.

A Shawl I'm donating

Every year our elementary school has a "Santa's Breakfast". The school choir sings and plays hand bells, a breakfast of juice, coffee and cinnamon rolls is served, there is a raffle of gift baskets put together by the different grades/classes and staff/volunteers/parents. Last year another knitter mom knit up a hat and mittens (I believe, I may have to ask her what her contribution was, because my mind is like a steel sieve these days...not that it matters anyway) Anyway.....one of the PTA leaders told me "The other Cheri (actually I believe she spells her name Sherry, but same diff) knit up some things for last years Santa breakfast, would you consider knitting up something so that I could bid/buy all of the raffle tickets for it." And before I knew what was happening, I heard my voice say "you know I was thinking of knitting a shawl and donating" (I was?!! Why did I never mention it to myself? The truth is I'd thought about knitting up a shawl for a friends private schools annual fundraiser dinner/silent auction that I just adore going to even tho I don't have children there. So there I am thinking "I have so many things that I need to get done for gifts and other charity knitting that I do on a regular basis (baby hats) how am I going to get this puppy done before January. So I dug in my rather limited stash and came up with some merino lace weight blue jeans stuff from Knitpicks and a leaf lace shawl pattern from an Interweave knits and I cast on. School has been on for three weeks and I've hauled this project everywhere with me because I just knew that if I set that puppy down I wouldn't pick it up again until the week before Santa's breakfast when I'd be sobbing over my needles with a huge knotted up mess of yarn wondering if there was any booze in the house. So here she is, blocking on my living room floor (with the white towel you see in the corner over her to keep the dogs and cat from shedding on her). As soon as she's dry I'm schlepping her over to the school and handing her over. (Carmella, I believe that it's the perfect size for you and you'd look lovely in blue).

Now back to baby hats and socks.....

My fling with Lorna

After many starts and stops I have finished a pair of socks for myself.

Does it mean you knit too much when you finish up one project and as you're casting on another your husband says "Now what are you knitting?" I really think it was because I cast on for a shawl I'm knitting for a school auction and not another pair of socks since he so kindly stocked me up on Lorna's Laces while we were on vacation. I love knitting with Lorna. I love the stitch definition, I love the softness and on this pair I loved the colors, they didn't pool or make weird designs (you know, not the designs like patterned yarn makes, but weird random designs that look like mistakes). Soon I'll cast on another pair of socks, but first I have 4 hats to finish up with pom poms and ends worked in so that I can drop them off at the hospital, then there's the school shawl thingy and...well....there's always a project of 20 that are calling my name.

A New Place to Stash Stuff

I inherited my grandmother's desk. When I was a child this desk was always in the corner of the den in her tiny house. She kept dice for Yatzee in the drawer with the pens and pencils and assorted mailing return labels. The desk has three drawers and in them she kept letters. When she died she had 92 years worth of old letters. I'd love to say that I've kept every letter that has ever been sent to me, but I haven't. I have kept a great many of them tho. So, now the desk is crammed in a corner of my living room. The largest (bottom) drawer houses school supplies, the middle one has a paper trimmer in it. The cubbies have knick knacks, but they will soon be replaced with things like envelopes, tape, things the younger children like to get into but are not supposed to. They are not allowed to dig through this desk. It is for writing (which means homework can be done here), it is not for stashing (except for the drawers and they are mine all mine and I may fill them up with yarn, except the school supply drawer. The school supply drawer is what keeps me sane).

The girlchild is in half day kindergarten this year which means 3 hours by myself. I thought to myself when she climbed on that big bus the other morning (I swear she looked even smaller than she is when she climbed aboard the bus with a huge smile on her face) that I could get some knitting done and lots of stuff done that I can't do with her "helping" me. And I have. Sort of. Today is her 4th day in school and I know that I'll get into the "groove" again. It's been years (8) since I've had 3 hours on a daily basis to myself. I've had 13 years of children in school, but precious few without them underfoot constantly. For the past 3 days I've walked the dog for an hour, knitted for about an hour and did housework for about an hour. This morning I went grocery shopping and I have laundry going. I have gazed upon my knitting this morning. Especially the two baby hats (knit at the same time on one long needle), I need to get them finished and to the hospital. The doily thing is actually a washcloth, I am thinking about making a few and giving them to a sister in law for Christmas since she said she loves hand knit washcloths. But the pressure, I promised myself last year I wouldn't knit up a bunch of Christmas gifts because you know how it is. You tell yourself you'll knit all of these gifts in August, or September, after all you have months before the holidays. And then you find yourself a week before Christmas crying over your needles and nothing is shipped, heck nothing is even wrapped. But still......

Girlfriend's sweater

I finished girlchild's sweater. I really like it for the most part. I used Knitpicks "swish" which was lovely to knit with. I had ordered 7 skeins, and unless the kids hid a skein or 3 I used about 6.5 of those skeins. I have steamed the life out of this project because, for some reason, the edges roll more than a bear in a circus. I ripped the bottom out 3 times and then gave up because I was afraid that the yarn would become exhausted from all of the ripping. I don't know that I'll ever knit this particular pattern again, but I know that there are elements of it that I will use again. All I need to do is slap a few button loops on it and a few buttons and she'll be ready for her first day at kindergarten.

A boy turned 16

That would be my middle boy. And to celebrate him turning 16, after he spent the morning at the high school finishing up his registration, I took him to the Department of Revenue (I don't know why they just don't call it the "Department of Motor Vehicles") to get his learners permit. Being the mean parents we are, we didn't allow him to get his permit last year, he didn't have the grades and he won't be able to drive to school until next year anyway. We spent a lovely 20 minutes at one office only to find out that we needed to go across town, I knew that the line was too short at the first office. I'd been told expect to wait 2 hours. So when they called our number after 20 minutes I should have known. So off to the next office where we waited in line for half an hour just to get a number so that we could go wait (the receptionist makes sure that you have everything you need before you're given a number). Once we were issued our number we sat down and I got a good almost 2 hours of knitting done (in between listening to kids...mine...complain that they were tiredboredhungry).

I don't have a picture of said knitting, it still looks like a hunk of pink yarn. I discovered while I was knitting away that I need to rip out the bottom of it as I don't like how it's hanging. I think I'll try an attached icord when I get to that point. At the moment I'm working on a sleeve. What is the project you ask? It is Wendy's "Girlfriend Swing Coat" I am hoping to have it done for Girlchild to wear to her first day of school next week (of course it will probably be too warm to wear it, and perhaps it will clash with her planned outfit, not that she's excited about going to school, but we'll see.....) and once it doesn't look like a pile of yarn, I shall post a picture!

A Shrug for the mother in law

Excuse the crummy picture, but that's what I get for doing the timer thingy on the camera. And I really should know better than to try to take my own picture after an afternoon with an old dog at the vet (the old dog is fine, she's...well...she's old).

While we were at my inlaws house my mother in law mentioned that she would like a shrug to keep her shoulders warm. Now, where they live the temperatures in the summer are just slightly cooler than the surface of the sun so they run the air conditioner. It's a more "normal" temerature there in the winter when they don't keep the house refrigerated. I mean, middle of summer, it's a kajillion degrees outside and inside you need a parka, hat and mittens, it's no wonder that she wants something to keep her shoulders warm (tho in my opinion one should adjust the thermostat so that the inside of the house is warmer than the freezer and the husband did keep resetting the thermostat and the father in law kept resetting it.....stubborn 84 year old man!).

At the moment I am knitting some Lorna's Laces gifted to me from my friend Heather oh my I think that I could definitely get used to knitting with Lorna (and I will since the husband bought me 6 skeins 2 of which girlchild is convinced are for her). Heaven, it's pure heaven (and no Crissy, the socks aren't for you). The girlchild has asked me to knit her a sweater so we're waiting for some bubblegum pink superwash from Knitpicks to arrive. The boys have informed me that they do not wish for a handknit sweater as it is not "cool" and the middle boy being in 10th grade this year is all about "cool".

I figured out how to knit two baby hats on one needle (the magic loop method), I'm not sure that it's a faster way to knit them, but now I can at least say that I know how to do it (more or less, I tend to forget things quickly and I'm not sure that I can remember how I cast on without looking at the pictures and reading the instructions I found on the internet).

But for this afternoon, I'm setting the knitting aside to sew a shirt for the daughter and perhaps a couple of pair of boxers for the boys.....

Free socks, a shrug and a cheap car

You know when you're handed your baby shortly after you've given birth, you marvel at this little person (my almost 16 year old was 10 pounds at birth, so I marveled at what a large baby this was!). You try to imagine as they grow what they'll be like when they're teenagers, what will they be like when they're adults. You look at their litte Jack-o-lantern smile as they climb on the bus heading to second grade and wonder. But what no one tells you is that it feels like you put them on the bus for first grade in the morning and in the afternoon when they climb off the bus you have this 6'1" boy with a deep voice and whiskers (but when you look into his eyes you still see your baby).

My middle boy is turning 16 in a couple of weeks. For his birthday he gets to get his learners permit. He will not get his drivers license until he is 17, mostly because we were lazy about getting his permit and we'd like for him to drive for a year supervised before he gets his license and he's only a sophmore in high school and his school will not allow sophmores to drive to school. That said, we did find a nice opportunity to buy a used car for him to drive and to learn in. For $1,000 the car he will have to drive is a higher end car than either my husband or I have ever owned. A 1993 Volvo. It's an automatic, I hate automatics, but even more I hate the thought of teaching my uncoordinated boy to drive a manual transmission. It has every bell and whistle known to man and gets better gas mileage than my mom-mobile. I will be driving the volvo instead of the mom-moble for a while. I've contemplated selling the Trooper, but I do like having the 4 wheel drive in the winter.

Oh, knitting, I must not forget the knitting part of this post. Free socks. Yes, you heard me, free. Well, not really free but kind of. I had ends of sock yarn and had considered just donating the ends to the school and then I thought "hmmmm, I'll bet I could get at least a pair of footies out of these ends".....and so I did. And the mother in law mentioned that she would like a shrug to keep her shoulders warm. My inlaws keep their house refrigerator cold, I'm surprised that she didn't ask for a parka, but really a shrug is easier to knit. She's 82 so I'm knitting along on that and hoping that I'll soon have it finished and can move on to something other than hospital hats and the shrug....I'm trying to resist starting another project, but Lorna keeps calling to me, taunting me. I need more hours in my day and more days in my week.

Jimmy Bean's Wool

That was my vacation destination. Oh, okay, really my inlaws house in Rocklin was my destination. But I did let it slip, at least once or a dozen times, that since we'd be driving through (okay, past) Truckee on our way to and from California, that perhaps, just perhaps I'd like to visit Jimmy Bean's. We were going to stop by on our way home July 5, but alas, the shop is closed on Wednesdays (the Truckee store)! So the dear husband took me there on July 3. It is true love when a husband will drive an hour and a half into the Sierra Nevada's and brave the holiday traffic in Truckee so that you can visit a teeny tiny wee little shop. Truckee is charming. Jimmy Bean's is charming. I chose 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces, the daughter chose 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces and the husband grabbed 2 more stating that he didn't drive that far for me to just pet the pretty yarn. (I also bought a "Yarn to Go" kit to knit flowers with).

Here's what I did on vacation (bought yarn and finished some socks I'd hauled with me)

Escape or how families can drive you mad

We are three states from home, California...home being Colorado of course. We're staying at the inlaws. I may start staying in our camper parked out in front. My inlaws don't drive me as crazy as the sister in law next door. Why oh why did they decide that living next door to their daughter was such a swell idea (I think they've rethunk that one). I love her, but oh the stress!!

But, I have figured out where Jimmy Beans wool is up in Truckee. It's only a little over an hour from here. There's other stuff we can do up there. Ah the promise of a yarn shop!!

But for now.....dinner must be cooked. I'll pop in later. Perhaps I'll have tales to tell and yarn to take pictures of....

Stuff going on in the family

has been just sucking up my time and energy. My money and my sanity. Suffice it to say that I have two extra children to take care of. Knitting has taken a back seat for the moment. I have finished a sweater but haven't even put it on to have pictures taken of it. No time.

So I am working on mending my heart and hoping that the family members who are going through stuff get lives back on track and I can pick up my pointy needles again.

Summer

Yesterday was my dad's birthday, he would have been 72 years old if he were still with us. My sister is going through many many pictures from our step mom's house. Boxes full of memories. Dad was an animal lover, he always had critters around and could often be found out in his garden carrying something around with him. The animals put up with him, enjoying the attention. He had a goose named "Gussy" that was one of his favorite pals to haul around the yard with him. I can still hear him saying "Come on old Gussy girl, let's go see what's going on in the garden".


Summer. I miss dad every day, but summer it seems more intense sometimes. I miss the garden, I miss the animals, I miss the relaxed atmosphere there in the back yard. When I was little, we had goats. I'm not sure exactly why we had goats, but my brother and I each had a goat mine was Nanny and Ted's was Snooper. They were half angora half pygmy or something (this was like 35 years ago, really all I remember is they weren't big, and they were white). I do remember my dad decided that we should breed them and he borrowed a ram from the ranch where Nanny and Snooper had come from. The ram's name was "Stinky" and boy was he!! As a kid I looked at this smelly, stinky hairy goat and thought "Good Lord!! What do you do with that fur!! Now I look back and think yarn, sweaters, spinning (after a good wash, of course).

Summer, it brings back these memories. Back then I was still learning how to knit. I don't know that I'd ever heard of spinning, it was something in the enclyclopedia with a picture of someone in a long skirt sitting in front of a wheel. But I was learning how to knit on cheap acrylic and probably driving my mom crazy with my dropped stitches. I don't knit as much in the summer unless we're driving on vacation. From my house to my inlaws house is about 20 hours of driving time, since I drive about half of it and computer boy drives the other half I can squeeze in about 10 hours of knitting time (minus the time I have to crawl back into the camper for pottying kids and making sandwiches).

Summer. Brings yard work. On one hand I'd love to hire the yard work done, but really we don't landscape the entire acre and a half. Heck we don't even landscape the front yard so to speak, we just go out and mow and cut the suckers off of the oaks and the yard looks pretty. But on the other hand I really find working out in the yard to be relaxing, even tho it does cut seriously into my knitting time (mostly I think, because I don't really look at trimming trees as work....goofy as that sounds).

And so I'm off with a nice glass of iced tea to trim trees and think of dad and his garden. At my altitude my garden will never compare to his, but I hope someday my kids have such happy memories of my attempts.

Happy Memorial Day and Happy Birthday to a 5 year old!!

Tomorrow my baby turns 5. How can that be she was just born yesterday!! I, of course, say this about her 3 brothers too and they are 19 (next week), 15 and 8.

Not much knitting going on around here, I've been pretty pokey with getting things done. I'm not quite halfway on another sweater from the same pattern as the blue one I knit not long ago, this one is in a cotton/wool blend. I'm finishing up another crop of hats to drop off at the hospital. But with the end of the school year festivities, the husband's business trip a couple of weeks ago, and this car accident stuff I've just not squeezed in a lot of quality knitting time lately. But on June 14 the judge will formally drop the charges against me (I'm not sure when the guy who hit me will be charged, I do know that the police are investigating what happened. I'm just glad that the guy who rear ended me will be charged and I will be able to put this in the past).

While the husband and I were out birthday gift shopping on Friday the dog(s) (we're babysitting a friends 14 year old son and 3 year old dog this weekend) got into a bag of raisins. I believe that my basset hound, Jenny, ate the lions share of them (my golden didn't eat any), my friends lab ate some too, but the basset got so very very ill. Grapes and raisins are toxic to dogs. They can cause kidney failure. It was too late Friday night to have her stomach pumped. So we waited while she vomited and had diarreah. We've watched her for 2 days now. Finally today she's pottied without passing massive amounts of raisins (bet you wanted to know that!). She's wanting to play. From what I've read she's probably not out of danger yet, but her kidneys are still working and I think she's feeling better.

When the going gets tough, the tough knit socks

I have griped and complained about this whole car accident thing, the unfairness of it all. I've knit all sorts of things that I don't have to concentrate on, baby hats and most recently these socks. But finally things are turning around. Late(ish, it was 9:00) the phone rings and the caller id says the name of my city. Since the town hall closed hours ago I piqued my interest as to who could be calling me at that hour. It was a seargeant from the local police depart calling to tell me that they've been reviewing the accident information and have come to the conclusion that they should drop the case against me and charge the guy who hit me. Gosh, what a concept!! The guy rear ended me and I even had a witness come forward (which the officer mentioned last night) to say I was innocent. Too bad they didn't do this before I went to court the first time. I really think that the only reason that they "reviewed" the case was because I told the court I was not guilty and now the case was going to trial. They could not just blindly charge me without looking at the facts.

I feel like singing. I feel like dancing. I feel like I can knit something that requires math. I have told the kids, tell the truth, no good comes from lying. Lying catches up to you and bites you on the behind. The guy who hit me is (possibly) going to find that out soon.

Sad non knitting news

My mom called me this morning to let me know that my step mom passed away in her sleep last night. Good bye Betty, tell dad hi for us.

The judge is not scary

I've known our local judge for many many years. We were scout leaders with him and his wife when my older boys were in elementary school. In his "real" life he is a high powered divorce attorney, which nearly cost him his life several years ago when a disgruntled ex husband stalked and shot the judge (cost the judge one eye, and if his son hadn't been in his office at the time it would have cost him his life). When he called my name and I stood up and stepped forward he told me "Why you dragging Cheri, you know that I don't bite". He read what I was charged with (reckless driving) and what the fine/points are for that ($200/8), he then read the plea (careless driving) and the fine/points ($200/4). Let's see, I really am only guilty of making a right turn on a green light with the right of way, having a guy cut me off nearly hitting me and then plowing into the back of my car and managing to get me blamed for it.....I plead not guilty (of course I managed to do it before John read me my rights, so we did things a little backwards). So he gave me a trial date and I'll get to stand before him once again. Engineer boy told me he "relishes a trial"....oy!! I really just want this to go away. Did the cop really think that I would plea out? Did the guy who hit me (who didn't get cited and so doesn't get to participate in this nincompoopery) have a bad driving record knew the cop and asked him to "protect" him? In my experience dishonesty has a way of coming back and biting you on the backside. The cop is protecting his friend, the chief of police, obviously didn't take our letter of complaint seriously. Now we'll face them at a trial. Either way it's a gross waste of time (I did sit and knit while I awaited my turn).

So, high ho high ho it's off to trial we go.

Preparing for court

I don't go until Wednesday morning. I have girlchilds care taken care of. Off to a friend from dance class in the morning so she doesn't have to miss her dance class, recital is around the corner and she needs all the practice she can get. Then her friend's mom (bless her) will drop her off at my neighbor's house. It is the neighbor girls birthday and after neighbor girl comes home from kindergarten girlchild and she will go to the park and do fun things while I sit in court. Oy! Wednesday evening the boys have karate, so I won't even get to relax then (or maybe I will, maybe I'll drop girlchild in child care while the boys are doing their karate and I'll go sit in the hot tub).

But, tonight....preparing for court (because tomorrow night I'm playing bunko and I'm going to have fun.....damn it!). I've written out cue cards. I need to draw up some diagrams. If the police haven't given the judge all of the information I know for a fact that they have in their possession, the case should still be thrown from court, because how could I have caused that idiot to rear end me short of putting the little car in reverse and backing into him? But I digress.....diagrams (makes me think of "Alice's Restaurant" with 27 8 x 10 color glossy photos with circles and arrows and a diagram on the back of each one)....diagrams....my mind is tired, and my best pictures these days are stick figures and smiley faces. I don't think there will be smiley faces on my diagrams.

I may work on the diagrams more tomorrow, girlchild will be home, maybe I should let her paint them (not). Soon it will all be over....or just beginning. But how someone could believe the police report is beyond me. Without measuring and figuring (like the husband did) I could tell you that there was no way it could have happened as the guy who hit me said it did. Maybe in Hollywood with some good special effects and the super duper souped up mini cooper and some trick photography. But no way with the traffic on the road at that time of day, with a middle aged mom chatting about Easter eggs with her 4 year old daughter in the back seat would the mini be going 20 miles over the speed limit, skid around a corner in front of a Ford F150 slam on their brakes while flipping of the truck driver and let him rear end her. Impossible.

Now I shall end this drivel, fix some more tea and draw....

How to ruin the knitting muse

Yesterday the husband told me that I had to get dressed in clean clothes and not the sweats I'd been wearing for 2 days and go out somewhere. Go to the Y (but if I exercise I have time to obscess about what's going on), go shopping, and here's where I knew he thought I was really really sick, he told me to go to a yarn store. I got dressed. Not snappy and stylish, but clean. I went to Kohl's. I bought bras (I know, about as exciting as an audit). I also found 2 pair of capris on a clearance rack for $3.50, I bought a sleeveless t-shirt. Girlchild and I ventured over to Target so she could buy a neighbor girl a birthday present (girlfriend will be at her friend's house when I go to court, that day just happens to be her little friend's birthday). Then we ventured over to our nearly empty outlet center where we bought the husband a little something for his birthday on Cinco de Mayo.

My witness to the accident sent me a message through his son. I've only met the witness briefly at the accident when I stood next to his car crying and asking to use his phone. My son figured out who his son was the day after the accident (his son is a year ahead of mine and they both were running on the track team). It seems that my witness took the time to go down to the police station to give a statement. The officer basically told him that he wouldn't take the statement, that he believes the guy that rear ended me. We (my husband and I)have emailed a statement to the chief of police. We are contacting a lawyer. I have hives. I can't knit. Oh, I can knit the baby hats and I'm churning those out at a faster rate than usual. I have half a footie on needles, but the knitting mojo isn't there, it's been replaced by hives, and thoughts of hiring an attorney. Thoughts that I really don't believe in lawsuits. I mean, there's nothing wrong with them in the right context, and I'm sure that this is the right context. I don't want money. I want my car back. I want to not be afraid to drive it again. I want to wear my sweater that matches my car and putter around. I want to be able to read and comprehend what I'm reading, I want to be able to focus. I want the guy who hit me to take an anger management class and perhaps a driving course.

I want to feel like me again.

I survived my challenge

I challenged myself to not purchase anything knitting (or any non-job related craft) for the month of April. I finished up a sweater for myself, yoga socks for a friend, a sweater for girlfriend and several hats for the hospital. Mid month a guy rear ended my new car and managed to report to the police that I was suffering from road rage and was driving dangerously) and therefore I was charged (I go to court in 2 weeks) I was in a mini and he was in a Ford F-150, I had my 4 year old daughter in the back seat of my car, the police obviously think that I am insane (they also must think the car is magical because there's no way I could have been speeding around the corner this guy says I was speeding around). Anyway from April 13th on it was a pretty shitty (excuse my French) month. But I resisted I didn't buy yarn (of course I spent almost a full week in bed emotionally unable to do much that required thought), I still have moments, but slowly I hope to be myself again. At least we weren't physically injured.

But here I am to say Happy May and in a week or so I should have some lovely cotton/wool yarn to knit up another sweater. And if/when the charges against me are dropped I may just buy more yarn to celebrate.