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.

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:

Kicking off Spring Break

We kicked off Spring break today by taking the middle boy in to have his wisdom teeth removed. We really know how to live life to the fullest, nothing says vacation like surgery!!! Of course for me, this wisdom tooth surgery meant almost an hour of uninterruped knitting in the waiting room. By tomorrow middle boy should be feeling a little better and not so loopy from being knocked out and I may leave him alone for a little while and do something with the little ones. I promised them we'd go to the zoo, but I may save that for Thursday. Right now the schedule is pretty open, perfect for a week without school!!

The Joys of air travel

Engineer boy is coming home tonight. He was supposed to land at 8:30, I had therefore planned on leaving a little early so I could pick up a cup of coffee as a treat to myself for driving the hour and 15 minutes it takes to get to the airport) and possibly hit a bookstore on the way to get him. Now he's landing at a little after 10:00 and I'm really not in the mood to try to skid into anywhere just before they close for the night because that's just not leisurely or fun. Perhaps I'll leave a few minutes early, pick up a coffee and go sit in the "45 minutes, don't leave your car unattended, there's no bathroom" area at the entrance of the airport and knit. Or read. Or at this point in my week just sit and listen to the sound of nothing.

I've not knitted enough to warrant breaking out the camera and taking pictures. I've been knitting, but have you ever knitted on something and it seems like you've been knitting a lifetime and only have about an inch or so to show for it? That's me about now. Maybe the knitting fairies will smile upon me and a project will magically finish itself (yea I know....about the same time the bathroom magically cleans itself .....)

Husband away does not equal more knitting time

Husband's dad is sick so he's off to sunny (rainy) California to help his mom while dad is in the hospital. Whenever engineer boy travels I, for some reason, delude myself into thinking that I am going to have more time to knit, watch tv, whatever. I seem to forget that the kids still need to be toted around, fed and just kept in line. More time my right eye. I suppose if I managed my time better I might have more time, but I doubt it, there's still only 24 hours in a day and I seem to spend a great many of those hours opening and closing the door for the dog who can't make up her mind whether she wants to be in our out. The other dog just waits until I'm up to my armpits in something to dig at the door to be let out like she can't hold her pee for another minute (or second). To add to my time dilemma the two older ones still at home had a snow day today. Sometimes snow days are great, it's like I have more time because I don't have to bundle up to go to the bus stop, there's no shuttling of kids around (especially if we've gotten enough snow that we can't get out of the driveway, but today wasn't like that). The only shuttling I did was to take two teenagers (twins) home late this afternoon.

No, I did accomplish some knitting today (I call it sanity moments). But I have two karate uniforms to hem before Wednesday afternoon's class and I don't dare pull out those nice white, nice white expensive uniforms out while the girlchild is awake. She is a walking stain. I don't know what I was thinking when I said "Why, yes I can hem your gi", did I forget that they're white? I don't know how I could have since I have 2 kids of my own that wear them (these that I'm hemming are for grown-ups, the price of the childrens uniforms don't give me heart palpitations and even tho the one's I have to hem are something like $40, I'd rather spend $40 on yarn rather than replacing someone's uniform).

So the elderly father in law will hopefully be coming home from the hospital tomorrow, if not engineer boy will probably try to change his flight home until the weekend. I told him if pressed we could drive (it would probably take me alone with 3 kids 2.5 to 3 days to drive) out to fetch him). I hope that everything works out. This July my inlaws will have been married for 60 years. I can not even imagine. My parents made it 17 years, engineer boy and I just sailed past the 17 year mark another 43 years is amazing.

Has it been a week since I've been here?

I need more knitting hours in my day. All I can say is knitting is happening, pictures of said knitting are not. Maybe I should take a picture of my sweater....top down, only done to the armpits at the moment and other obligations have reared their ugly heads (like me opening my mouth at my son's karate class and now I have a gi to hem) . But soon there'll be more excitment again.

I am not a foot model

or any other kind of model for that matter...too short, too fat, too old. The boys karate teacher is turning 40 tomorrow. So I took a vote as to what they might wish to gift her with. Yoga socks won (but we'll call them "karate socks" for sake of argument). This was decided on Friday meaning that I had just a few short days to get them knit up (in addition to the other stuff that raising a family entails). And here dear friends is my effort (and my completely flying by the seat of my pants "pattern")







And just because I feel like it here is a picture of Jenny on my yellow chair. My yellow chair that we stack crap on trying to keep her off of it. Her favorite spot in my chairshedoesn'tbelongon is inbetween the back of the chair and the cushion.

She only looks innocent

She's cute, she's cuddly, she gets up on my bed and eats my earplugs off of my nightstand. Today she took a partial skein of wool (with my knitting still attached), jumped up on my bed and rolled around in the mess of yarn that was once a neat tidy skein. I love her dearly, but I'm telling you now, basset hounds are stupid stupid little creatures. I know she can learn, but good lord her stubborness is stuff that stories are made of.

My knitting project is now finished, luckily she didn't have a chance to ruin the yarn. and my knitting is out of her reach. She may be short, but she has great reach..... and now to find my ear plugs (or get some new ones)

Surgery, or how to spend a holiday

It was a planned thing (personally I've been planning this for over 20 years). But it's finally done and I'm not living a preparation H commercial. Actually no, I'm kind of in a percocet induced haze. But at least this time I've left the knitting alone. I once sewed a maternity outfit after 3 days in the hospital with a kidney stone. One should not operate a sewing machine on pain killers, the result will be lopsided. After my myomectomy I did try to knit something.....I managed to miss a WHOLE row of knitting! Beautiful.

But(t) now this whole thing is behind me, so to speak. And in a few days when I feel a little more like myself I shall (hopefully) have something wise and inspiring to say. Or not say, perhaps I should knit myself up a nice little gag. I sure hope I didn't chatter the doctor and nurses ears off yesterday as they were putting me out (or when I was waking up). I have a tendency to chatter when I'm nervous....you know the mouth is in gear, and the brain is in neutral....

My best side.......

I decided that my girlfriend should have a Flower Power Smoke Ring for her 50th birthday (she should also have some yoga socks, but that's another day). Today is the weather for this smoke ring as it's 9 degrees outside (-3 if you count the wind chill), but I will behave and work the ends in and put it up for her birthday instead of wearing it for myself, tho I have to say I look much better wearing it than I do without.....Maybe, just maybe I should take to wearing something over my face (I'm sure that my family would often vote for a nice plain old gag)

Sock it to me!!

I can finish socks!! Actually I'm pretty good about getting the second sock done. I've not tried knitting them two at a time, heck I'm still knitting them with 5 needles!

This was a pattern out of Spring 2004 (I believe) issue of Interweave Knits. It would not have been a bad pattern, but I seem to be my own worst enemy. If I could consistently count up to 8 life would have been good, but alas, I'd miss a stitch and wouldn't (somehow) discover it for about 4 rows. I must have cast on 4 times for each sock...because if I can't count up to 8, I surely can't count as high as 64!! But they're done!! And I'm on to the next project a flared smoke ring knit out of a sock weight yarn from Knitpicks in the color "Flower Power", bought because I love love love the name (and the colors are great) and because in April it is a dear friends 50th birthday and the colors and the yarn name fit her so well.

And now, because I don't have enough going on at one time I must let the dog out, play with dolls with girlchild AND go to the bus stop to pick up the youngest son.....

Isn't She Pretty?

I know she has nothing to do with knitting other than I did knit some on the 5 (ish) hour drive down to Albuquerque to fetch her. There was no knitting on the drive home as I've yet to figure out how to (safely) knit while driving.

I've got to bring some color back into my knitting

I've been sort of a knitting funk lately. I'm coming out of it as I do have some projects that must be done (the deadline is April so I have plenty of time to procrastinate, waste time and surf pattern ideas). I have some socks on needles. But in the past three weeks I've been hung up on white hats for the hospital. My mom gave me the yarn for the hats trying to rid herself of some of her stash so I really can't complain, but I'll tell you that bag for the hospital looks mighty pale. Maybe this week I'll knit up a zippy yellow one. The nursery often will ask for no green or yellow hats (they seem to prefer white, pink or blue), but I figure that with a nice lacy pattern, or a basketweave pattern yellow or green should be just fine (especially lace). Youngest boy came home with a white hat, girl child came home with a pink and white hat, I could have cared less about the color, I was touched that someone actually knit the hat that the babies wore home for the hospital. I think that it's fun to knit the hats. I've yet to see one of my hats on a baby, but then again, I rarely have the opportunity to see newborn babies nowadays.

Two steps forward, one step back

This has been quite a week. Chris's boss Rudy died unexpectedly on Friday which throws life into a weird spiral both emotionally and creatively. I did not know Rudy well, having only met him a handful of times over the past few years that Chris worked with/for him. I knew that when Rudy came to the company it was a bumpy transition for him, but he worked it out and became much liked amongst his co-workers/employees. He'd had cancer, but was given a good prognosis and yet, now he's gone. He was 49 years young and leaves behind a wife, 5 kids and one grandson and many devastated employees/co-workers. Chris had mentioned that perhaps I could knit him a beanie to keep his newly bald head warm. I was thinking of buying the softest yarn for a hat, something he could wear to church, but still with a bit of fun a whimsey. But now I'll send a card to a grieving family.

Creatively, it's socks or should I say the same damn sock over and over. I refuse to rip this poor sock out again, the yarn is going to get tired of being knit, ripped and knit again. A lovely package arrived at the post office today from Knitpicks containing the yarn I plan to use for a friend's 50th birthday present. I am knitting her a smoke ring, since she hikes/runs and I thought that something to keep her neck warm would be perfect especially since the yarn I chose is called "Flower Power". Perfection. Sometimes that slump in creativity can be forced out of retirement and sometimes not. For me. For right now, this second in time I feel at least a little creative. (That and in the last 2 weeks I've knitted 4 hats to drop off at the hospital).

Ah the beginning of a new year, the ups and downs of life. And knitting, always knitting.

Socks are the answer

Trying to dig myself out of the rut, you know the "what do I feel like knitting" rut. The inspiration rut. The "I've knit 4 hats for the hospital" rut (which, while it's nice for the hospital, and keeps my hands busy, it's kind of a no-brainer activity). I don't need intricate lace projects to feel productive, just something fun and interesting to knit. I do have a shawl on needles, but with a couple of hundred stitches per row it's slow going. No. I'm looking for something quick or at least not so agonizing when I mis-count and must rip a row or two (or three). Do you know how long it takes to tink 2 rows of over 200 stitches? Let me just tell you it isn't fun. Or quick. Which brings me to socks. They're a quick knit (relatively). Simple, yet impressive, especially when you turn the heel, portable (you can throw them in your purse to take with you to the park or dance class or doctors offices). They don't take up a fortunes worth of yarn (a sweater can be a very expensive proposition). Yep, socks are the answer. I have knit several scarves as of late, and while scarves are fun, and work with the weather we have here, socks wear out and truly there is nothing as luxurious as pulling on a pair of hand knit socks. Critics can say what they may about buying socks in bulk cheaply, but the feel of a seamless handknit sock........heaven.

Stuck in a rut

The holidays are over and it's a new year. Full of possibilities, new patterns, new things to knit, places to go, people to see and neverending cornucopia of possibilities. And here I sit with 4 miles (or more) of lace weight yarn (what was I thinking), several skeins of lovely sock yarn....well you get the picture, I have yarn and so far no creative thought as to what I want to knit with said yarn. Nothing is jumping out there saying "you are inspired to knit me in this pattern", the yarn just sits there and taunts me. I've knitted 2 hats for the hospital the last few days and a couple of rows on a lace weight shawl and I've waited. I've waited for the inspiration to hit me.

I'm stuck in a rut.

To be fair the kids went back to school yesterday and I'm not back in my "one kid still at home to keep me company groove" and it's a busy week....dance and karate yesterday, volunteer in a classroom this morning, then pick up a friends son to get his braces off at lunch time today, tomorrow will be karate and racketball in the afternoon, so the groove seems to be more of a tap dance or a good rousing game of dodge ball lately, but still no inspiration.

And now the 4 year old girlchild and I must go to her 7 year old brother's school and stuff the folders that go home with each student every Thursday. Maybe being in the elementary school will give me some inspiration (or just a headache)....

Finishing Girlchild's projects

I loved this dress on the cover of "Handknits for kids". Girlchild loved it and asked me to knit it and a mouse from the book for her. So we ordered some Knitpicks shine to knit the dress up (it would have cost me about $95 to knit it out of the yarn specified, a smidge out of my budget for a dress the kid will stain even if I put her in a white room alone). And I knitted. And knitted. And knitted. She would stand next to me on occaision and ask if she could try on the pieces and when would I have it all done. I finished up the crochet edging (which wasn't as bad as I feared) last night and this morning I wove the ends in. As I wove in the last end Girlchild was standing next to me stripping out of her jammies to put the dress on. I explained gently to her that there's still some embroidery to do on the dress, and she explained not so gently to me, that she doesn't want the embroidery on the dress she just wants to wear it. The dress is so large on her (she's on the thin side) that when it becomes to short to wear as a dress we'll find some pink, red or turquoise leggings for her to wear and she should be able to wear this for a long long time (or at least until it's stained or ripped, because I'm sure one of those will happen before she outgrows this.

So we'll see if I can get this little project finished. Perhaps tonight when we pry her out of it to wrestle her into her jammies I'll sit and do the embroidery, or perhaps I'll just let it stay an embroider-less dress. Either way, she's paid me the highest compliment by wearing it (as I type this she's matching shoes to the dress)



Edit: There was a box awaiting my attention at the post office today. I thought that it was, perhaps, a sweater that Engineer-boy had ordered me for Christmas. It was not. Which is okay because it was from my secret pal!!! I now know her name and that she has a way of knowing just when I might need a pick me up package (she calls it being very tardy, I call it perfect for how my today was going).....Okay so I still don't know how to put pictures where I want them here. You can see what was in my package above. A yummy smelling candle, some chai mix (I love chai), a beautiful beautiful flowered tote with my name inside, a tin of lip balm (my favorite and my last tin is almost empty), a nifty little hand knit sweater, and a lovely hank of koigu!! Thank you!!

Merry Christmas

Happy Christmas, Merry Holiday and all that stuff. Santa has come it looks like a wrapping paper company has exploded in the den. Don't think any knitting will be happening today, just lots of fun family stuff. Hope yours is happy too.

Is your holiday knitting finished? (for this year, not last year)

I am famous for thinking that I 1. Knit faster than I truly do 2. Have more time than I truly do and 3. Will not bore of knitting a dozen of the same project. (I'm sure there are others but at the moment that's the best I can do). Shortly after Christmas last year I decided that the perfect gift for my husband's two sisters and their husbands would be lap afghans. My mother swore that knit on big needles this light and lofty, or soft and fluffy or whatever the name of that terrible yarn is, would knit up super fast, after all she knit up a couple of them. So I optimistically bought the yarn and cast on. Nearly 12 months later after avoiding knitting on this albatros I finished up one, smaller than it should be, lap robe. It will go to my sister in law with the 4 kids that I swear break everything they can get their grubby little hands on. My other sister in law with the grown civilized son and her husband are getting a lovely pottery garlic holder from a local potter. My sister is getting a pair of socks and a pair of fingerless gloves. My husband is getting a pair of fingerless gloves (he requested a new pair a few months ago) and that dear reader is the extent of my holiday knitting. I have knit a few tiny sweater ornaments and given away, but this year I am not madly knitting up until Christmas Eve and then hoping that my knitted object will block dry before Santa shows up and I can hide and wrap it. Nay dear reader, this afternoon I have cast on a sock for myself and plan to knit on it over the school holiday while my kids are home and my mother (who talks through any movie or tv show you try to watch) visits. I plan to drag my mother to a yarn store in Boulder that I've never been to, but hear is fabulous. So yep, my holiday knitting is gloriously finished. (okay, but the house still needs a good cleaning, and I've done no baking or candy making.....but...the knitting is done)

I hope you have a wonderfully relaxing Christmas!

Madeline has a new sweater

Girlchild loves her Madeline dolls. I remember seeing them in a toy store a couple of years before she was born and thinking how fun it would be to have someone to buy these neat dolls for, they had so many clothes, and they were so much cuter than Barbie. Flash forward a few years and I have a daughter to buy these cute little dolls for. The toy store where I found these dolls is gone, but no problem right? There's lots of neat toy stores out there right? Well, this is when I found out that my beloved Madeline dolls have been discontinued. Yes, just as girlchild is getting old enough to have the dolls you can no longer find them. So you visit ebay. Often. You buy a couple of dolls from a local toystore that still has a couple and you visit ebay to get your Madeline fix. Then at Christmas time you knit up a few sweater ornaments and you realize that with just a few modifications you can make these sweaters fit Madeline (forget trying to get the Barbie sweaters to fit her). You spend a morning knitting instead of doing the myriad of holiday things you should be doing and this is what you end up with:


I am sure that there are plenty more Madeline sweaters in my near future. Perhaps the next one will be a cardigan. This little number was knit from the top down and completely seamless. There is a slit in the back because there is no way that big ol head of Madeline's was going through the little neck opening. It was knit with Bernat Sox yarn on size 2 needles (size 1 for the ribbing, such that it is)

Girlchild's felted hat

Okay the pictures came out backwards, the hat didn't grow, but boy did it ever shrink!! This would be the yarn that girlchild and I dyed the other day with Easter egg colors. I felted the hat this morning and she modeled the still wet hat for me. It's first trip through the washer it barely felted at all. I was disappointed because it was still pretty big on her (enormous) so I threw it in again with a pair of jeans I keep for this purpose. It didn't do much and didn't do much and suddenly it was tiny. So I pulled and stretched and the child now has a very bright, very felted hat. I had considered poking some holes in the top of it, running some i-cord through and calling it a purse....

Easter Egg dying in November, and an old dog

Miss K and I decided to dye some yarn today. We used Easter egg colors (I probably have a few more boxes squirreled away, and now that I know how easy it is to dye yarn with them I'll probably go wild at Easter time!). We stuck the yarn in the crock pot and left it for a good portion of the day while we ran errands (dropped half a dozen hats off to the nursery at the hospital, and gave blood for the first time, me not K) When we came home we were met by the smell of cooking yarn, well the crock pot was on low so the yarn was just hot. And here is our yarn, and Miss Stella modeling for us (she's not a good model, she won't hold still and can't hear instructions, and she doesn't see so well anymore either, but I think the yarn necklace suits her). This yarn will be knitted up into a hat for Miss K and felted.

A semi-successful day at the LYS

Most of the yarn shops around here are closed on Sundays and Mondays. There's one that's open on Sundays, but that's because it's in a very "touristy" spot. And there's one that's closed on Sundays and Tuesdays (go figure, the yarn shop got a new name and a new owner a little over a year ago and she's kept the old hours) maybe she figures that if someone needs a yarn fix on Monday they won't resort to Wal Mart, Joann's, Michael's or any other discount store with a limited selection. So the girl child and I went to buy a tree permit (family tradition we go to the mountains and cut down a tree), and it's in the same part of town as the LYS that is open on Mondays. There's a couple of patterns I want and I know that she carries a good selection from the company's so in we go. One of them she doesn't stock (to be fair it's fairly new), one of them she's out of and is reordering. Drat!! But I did find a nice book on crocheting with wire that I think I'll give my mother for Christmas, so it wasn't a wasted trip.

Not much going on in my knitting life. Just finished middle boy's fingerless gloves and am still knitting away at girl child's dress. I should call it a tunic because I don't think it's going to be long enough for a dress, unless you're my mother who used to dress me when I was little in dresses so short I couldn't move for fear of my panties showing.

Maybe next week I'll have something exciting on the old needles. With Christmas staring me in the face (no, I'm not knitting any gifts, the ones I did for this Christmas are done and ready to be wrapped), I'm not sure how much time I'll have for knitting (tho, I could call it my therapy and become really really crabby and maybe no one would lift an eyebrow when I sat down with needles in hand....)

Giving thanks and surviving the holiday (barely)

Wednesday night after karate class and swimming at the Y the husband and I decided to do something different. Normally on Wednesdays the husband does not meet us at the Y and we go straight home, but this being a holiday weekend, we shook up our routine and treated it like Friday when we go to the Y for the boys karate class, and play racketball and then head on over to Whole Foods to grocery shop and eat pizza. Wednesday night we decided to swim, then head over to Macaroni Grill and cash out a couple of gift cards. Robert wanted fried calamari for an appetizer. Robert and I shared the calamari (mistake #1 for me). For dinner I had "make your own pasta" (whole wheat penne, artichoke hearts, roasted bell pepper, pignoli and shrimp), no dessert, but I did have an Italian margarita. Thursday I am fixing thanksgiving dinner, but Wednesday night I'm not thinking about fixing dinner, I've done it enough times to know the routine (good thing as it turns out). Late in the evening I'm still feeling full, as a matter of fact I'm feeling overly full even tho I didn't eat to that over stuffed feeling. Thursday morning I'm feeling....well....pretty crappy. I get the bird stuffed and in the oven. My brother and his family come over. We eat, we visit, but I still feel like nothing is digesting. I am miserable (miserable enough that the husband asks if I need to see the doctor, when I'm too sick to even knit he starts to worry). Yesterday afternoon I started to feel a little better. In the evening we went to some friends house for dinner (I'm still really not eating), and I thought that I was over the worst of this (I was). This morning I took the husband to the airport as he is to be gone for the next 4 days, so I simply can not afford to be ill. I spent a portion of my day shopping about the outskirts of Denver simply because I was there and it was convenient and I didn't feel like I was going to die. This afternoon I've eaten a little and my stomach isn't very happy with me, but nothing like Thanksgiving night or yesterday morning. I blame the calamari, I blame the fact that it was fried and fried food and I don't mix well.

But thank goodness I feel alive enough to knit, because a lovely box of yarn arrived from Knit Picks and it's miserable when you're too ill to be excited about yarn (wish the family understood that!)

The holidays, knitting frenzies and time

I don't knit gifts for the holidays. Really. Okay, that's not entirely true I did knit a lap afghan for my sister in law and her husband. But in my defense (even tho I don't knit afghans) was that my mother said "It's really easy and quick with this yarn and these really big needles", and I'm such a putz I believed her. I started that damn afghan in February, and finished it a couple of weeks ago, and it's not even very big! And I did knit my sister a pair of socks (sorry if you read my knit blog Crissy), but they didn't start out as a gift for her, they were going to be mine. But other than my true lapse of judgement (the afghan) I don't knit gifts for the holidays, and I often don't knit them for birthdays (tho, I did knit my sister in law a pair of socks when she turned 40 and a lace scarf for Chris's oldest sister when she turned 50). People often ask "do you sell your stuff?" (uh, no, but I'll happily teach you how to knit), or think that because I knit (and sew) I must give home made gifts. I did knit my dad a sweater for Christmas many many years ago, the neck ribbing was so tight he could barely pull it over his head. I do knit gifts. I've given socks and scarves to friends and family. I've knitted lacy baby dresses for new babies, baby hats, baby booties. I knit a baby afghan for a pen pal's first baby. I knit if I know that the person will like and use the gift, I try to match the gift to the person no point in making something that the recipient will accidently felt or ruin (gotta match the yarn and care of the item to the person).

Which brings me to these holidays, the ones staring us straight in the eyes and taunting us with the speed with which they will come. Had I considered knitting more gifts? Not really. (oh, I forgot to add the fingerless gloves I knit for the husband). I had thought about knitting some fingerless gloves for Robert, my middle son. He loved the pair I'm giving my husband. He requested some, but only out of the same yarn that his dad's are knitted from (alpaca). I thought that he was going to start stalking the post man as he waited for my yarn order to come. It's funny to see a 15 year old boy asking if your yarn has arrived, and then daily ask you how his project is coming along. No, the holidays are coming and I am refreshingly free of the stresses of trying to finish up that last sock/glove/sleeve/whatever before Christmas morning. I'd love to say that my holidays will be free of stress and tantrums, but ask me about them in mid January.

The finished project

Snow days were made for knitting. Unless, like me, you have kids then snow days are made for drying the snow off the floor and feeding the masses (or at least what feels like the masses when your teenager has a couple of friends over, the little kids didn't eat all that much). I spent a small part of my morning finishing up my leaf lace and blocking her. (yesterday you got to see her pinned down-side up on my living room carpet, today you get to see her over my gym clothes). I was amazed at 1. how simple this pattern really is especially if you knit with a fingering weight yarn so you can rip back if needed and 2. how quickly it knit up (okay, I may have been obsessed with getting it finished and therefore invested more time knitting on it than I should have in the last few days, the dishes in the sink seem to think that). But now she's done and I will go back to Miss K's dress, Robert's fingerless gloves and this weeks hospital hat.

Flower basket lace

I love this pattern. I can't find any lys that stocks this pattern on a regular basis, so I knit it from the spring, or fall 2004 Interweave knits and just adjusted the number of repeats. It is knit from a little over 4 hanks of Rowan Donegal Lambswool on size 6 needles. Here it is down-side up, blocking on my living room rug. I promise to take a photo of it right side up when it's dry. I love the pattern and may make a full blown shawl using the pattern eventually! But for every pattern that I wish to knit, I have kids who seem to find a pattern that they would like, and while, yes, I could teach them to knit, I really really like that no one really has an interest in stealing my knitting needles. And yarn. But really in the big picture, I do a fair amount of knitting for everyone. At the moment, even with this scarf/shawl blocking, on needles I have a hat for the hospital, a dress for the daughter and a fingerless glove for the middle son. Not an inordinate number of projects, but enough to keep me busy! Snow day today, so I have kids wandering around the house which really makes it hard (well, harder than usual) to keep one train of thought going.....

Spin spin spin

Night before last my knit meetup group had a sleepover. Not much of a turnout, but that's okay the few of us that were there had fun. We visited, we knit, I learned how to spin.....on a wheel! Now I want one, even tho my yarn looked like...well (crap comes to mind) let's just say my yarn looked bulky. But I am oh so proud of my first spinning attempt and so I shall inflict a picture of it on you.... (well, it's above my words because I can't seem to control where the pictures end up here). I may dye it (we learned that too) or I may leave it in its natural color and just pet it since I doubt I'm ever brave enough to try to cast it on and make anything (pot holder) out of it. Yep, spinning.....just what I need, another hobby!! (what I'd really like is to be able to spin beautiful yarn like my friend Heather does!)

Knitting enemy # 1

I know a lot of people would say that moths, or the washing machine or the cats are the # 1 enemy of yarn and knitting, but I know better. A basset hound is the #1 enemy. Oh I know that she looks all innocent with those sad droopy eyes, those oversized ears and the feet the size of Thanksgiving platters. Yup, innocent-look is her middle name (her first name being Jenny). She very calmly walks past you, brushes up against you so you'll pat her back, you don't notice that as she passes you she very gently grabs a skein of yarn and not the cheap stuff, she has good taste doncha know. Shortly after she passes quietly by you, you hear her playing and wonder what it is that she could be having so much fun with. You look. What is that, that she is throwing up in the air, and chasing? It looks like.....it looks just like....Good Lord it's your good yarn!!! You wind it back into a ball and while you're doing that, she's scoping out her next opportunity for her fiber fix.......

The faster I knit, the slower I go

Girl child decided she wanted this dress after I bought the book "Hand Knits for Kids" by Lucinda Guy. This is the dress featured on the cover of the book. It is the one that sucked me in. I am not a great color knitter. I have spent all of my life knitting things where changing colors is relatively simple (stripes and such). I've knit a couple of Christmas stockings and a Hello Kitty purse. I must have forgotten my inability at this changing of the color mid row thing, because here I am again. All in all I think the dress will be cute, and I've learned a lot. And it has dominated my knitting time lately (well, it and a Christmas gift for the husband), but at least it hasn't gotten boring.

Small hands

Fingerless gloves for a 4 year old princess sure do knit up fast. Now Robert wants a pair. I never thought I would see the day when my 15 year old son would be interested in yarn. Not, naturally, for him to knit (perish the thought of him knitting!! He doesn't think it's "cool"), but he was eyeballing some alpaca on the Knitpicks sight that would match his fleece jacket saying "Mom, could you make me some fingerless gloves to match this jacket, and that alpaca is so soft". Maybe for Christmas, if I get on the ball and get my other Christmas projects finished. Who knows.

Computer boy (the hubby) brought me home a ball winder (it says "wool winder" on the box....whatever).....late for my birthday. I think he was tired of watching me hand wind hanks of yarn onto toilet paper rolls. Sweet guy (I can't believe he braved a yarn shop!) The kids and I rolled a couple of hanks into little cakes to be knitted eventually.

Today B has off of school so we shouldn't have to rush like we usually do to get to karate. Computer boy and I have a racketball court reserved while B is in karate and K is bouncing on the bounce house the Y puts up on Friday evenings. Then our weekly trip to Whole Foods and then home......

Online Friends are the bestest.....

Several years ago I was drug kicking and screaming into the computer age. I saw no use for email, web pages, and never could figure out why I'd want to "chat" with someone on the other side of the nation (or planet for that matter)! We moved 3 states away from family 14 years ago. I kept in touch the normal way, phone calls and snail mail letters (which I still love to find in my mailbox). As my family was dragged into the computer age (my husband is a computer guy so we were pretty on the ball computer wise), I (grudgingly) learned more about this thing called email. Then I discovered Amazon, but that's a whole 'nother story. So I started emailing the few family members with email. Friends I made here moved away, so I started emailing them too. Pretty soon I was introduced to "the web". Good Lord!! You could look up anything! You could use it kind of like a gi-normous encyclopedia. Slowly I learned that there were web sites you could join, message boards!! You could BUY stuff on the internet and have it shipped to you, things you couldn't find in your little town and ordering stuff on the web is so much faster than waiting for the paper catalog!! A couple of years ago I discovered this thing called a blog. I found other people's blogs. I found that I cared very deeply for people who live all over the world, whom I don't know other than what they write on their blog (I'm still not a "chat room" kind of gal). I have found out things about the area I live in that I would never have discovered (a wonderful knit group, yarn stores, vacation spots etc).

All of this above brings me to this. We all have birthdays, whether or not we wish to or not. Husbands may manage to miss this day (he's trying, really he is, he did bring home a divine cake), but friends, even the online ones you've never met always seem to step in, as did Heather my dear online friend who lives too far away, but someday I do plan to pack up the camper and head east. A wonderful historic sock book, that even if I never knit a pattern from the book (I at least plan to use several of the stitch patterns from it and some of the toe treatments and some different heels than my standard.....okay, there are several patterns I'm planning.), is incredibly interesting and one I'd thought about buying for myself. 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces!! The color is incredible the yarn is....amazing. I've never bought myself Lorna's Laces, partly because only recently have I found an actual store that carries it, partly because....well...I don't really know why. She also included some most wonderful knitwear wash. AND a pattern for a beautiful scarf/shawl (how did she know that I have some yarn wanting to be knit into a shawl, but hadn't found the perfect pattern yet?) And the card was just something that fits in to what my family would send me. She is officially my sister of the heart.

And now for the knitting portion of this blog. Miss K has asked for some fingerless gloves. In pink. She is so tiny I should have them both done by tomorrow night barring some other thing that needs doing first.

Birthday day and other anniversaries

Today is my birthday. Tomorrow would be my parents 47th wedding anniversary and my grandparents 70th (or 71 I can never remember) wedding anniversary had 1975 happened (the year of the big divorce in my family). Every year for my birthday for many years my grandmother would say "Ted and I would have been married for x years had he not run out". Funny thing is he didn't run out on her and she kept the house while he lived in a travel trailer behind his sister's house. But the whole divorce thing is not something I wish ever to dredge up, so I'll leave it and my nana's voice in the past where that ugly scene belongs.

Today is also the marks the 7th year since dad died. I miss him every single day. Lord knows he wasn't perfect (who is?), and it took him a long time to grow up, but dad was a good person and I wish that my kids could have known him (Colin and Robert have some memories of grandpa, B and K have none).

So, at some point today I shall have a drink to dad, but in the meantime I am going to finish up my coffee and take K to the Y to exercise, run some errands and possibly, just possibly (probably) squeeze in some knitting.....Maybe even squeeze in some knitting for me instead of on the myriad of projects I have going on for others!

Cold hands, warm heart

I am not a hand model, my hands will never be mistaken for a hand models. My hands are just like a slightly smaller version of my dads hands (I liked my dad's hands). I have made several pairs of fingerless gloves, or hand warmers, or whatever you wish to call them. But, I've never made myself a pair. Finally I have decided that my hands are deserving of some fingerless gloves (and I'm hoping that with fingerless gloves I can knit, something I can't do with gloves on). Don't mind the errant strands of yarn, I've not gotten around to weaving in the ends, I'll do that when I finish the other glove, which is on my needles at the moment. The bowl in the picture is from tonights empty bowl supper. I stood in line chatting and knitting and this is one of the bowls I picked. Chris and the kids didn't get to the school where they were having the supper in time so I got to pick out 4 bowls (Robert took his ticket and got to pick his own bowl).

Snow and knitting projects

Not much to show project-wise since I finished my scarf a couple of posts ago. Just a couple of hats for the hospital. I've got a fingerless glove on the needles at the moment, hopefully I'll have two finished fingerless gloves before too long. It seems I've made everyone else a pair (the hub has asked for another pair, his met with an untimely accident while Chris was helping my brother with a building project. Chris got 6 stitches in his thumb and I can't remember if the fingerless gloves survived, I do remember blood on everything) except myself. So that's about it.

It's snowing. Tonight we're supposed to get 4 to 7 inches tonight, then 6 to 10 inches tomorrow. Then 1 to 3 inches tomorrow night. Normally I'd be thrilled. I'd be chanting "snow day, snow day" with the kids (if anything so there'd be no reason to leave the house). I'd make hot chocolate, bake some cookies and knit. So, kids, what do you think I'm doing tomorrow? Well.....funny you should ask. My son for civics class must do community service. A friend of his (whose mom is one of my dearest friends) also must do community service. So at 6:30 tomorrow morning my friend and her son are picking up my son and me and we're driving half an hour (if it wasn't snowing, hopefully it won't take us an hour) to the soup kitchen and volunteering from 7 until 2 in the afternoon. And if that weren't enough yucks for my day. Chris will pick Robert and me up from the soup kitchen and we'll drop Chris off at the hospital, because Chris is having sinus surgery tomorrow. I'll drive home, situate the kids and drive back to the hospital to fetch Chris and bring him home. Hopefully we won't get so much snow that the only way to accomplish what I need to get done tomorrow will be with a dog sled. (I can guarantee that my old golden and the little basset are not good sled dogs). I am hoping to squeeze in a little knitting tomorrow.....if anything for my own sanity!

g'night all, the snow is sticking and tomorrow is going to be a busy day, I need my beauty rest!

It's Yarn (and magazine) day!!

What a surprise it was today to walk out to the mail box and find a package!! Thank you Susie, and I'm glad that your auction went so well that your hubby doesn't have to sell his pride and joy project!! 8 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold silky wool in black.....I'm thinking some kind of sweater top (short sleeve? sleeveless? plenty of time to figure out the particulars) a bunch of Interweave knits, some of which will be sent on their way to Belgium where I hear you cannot buy them. A lovely smelling candle (I don't think I'll burn it, I think I'll put it in with my yarn so that the yarn will smell purty too), and......some of the most lovely yarn for hospital hats!!!

Girl child "helped" me with my hospital baby caps today. We made a pom pom for the top of one, and she promptly spilled drops of blueberry juice on the cap, so it's freshly washed and is drying so that it can be pom pommed. I think tomorrow when I cast on the next hat I shall cast on the lovely new yarn. I had thought about trying to have 2 more hats done by Monday and dropping them off at the main hospital (I am a volunteer knitter for the same hospital, different location). But Monday is looking a bit crazy. Robert and I (and one of his friends and his mom, who happens to be a dear friend of mine) are leaving here about 6:30 am Monday morning to volunteer at the soup kitchen from 7 until 2. Chris will meet me in town and I will drop him off at the hospital at 3 for his 4:30 surgery (sinuses), I will (more than likely) go home, situate the kids, or bring them back to the hospital with me about 6 (I figure that B and K would think it very very cool to have dinner in the hospital cafeteria. Robert being a teenager, probably won't think it neat, I may leave him home to eat cereal). Hopefully Chris won't have to stay in the hospital very long and I'm hoping that I can have whatever prescriptions he needs filled done at the hospital pharmacy. No, I'm thinking that I'll just wait another week or two before I turn in the knitted hats. I'll probably be lucky just to remember my knitting!

One of those days.

You know, you plan your day. A trip to Farmers Market (the last one for the season), thinking you'll pick up a few veggies for the week, a couple of errands, a workout at the Y. You don't bring your knitting with you, because, after all, you're running errands and exercising for goodness sakes! You don't need to throw in your knit bag. Besides you can knit tonight. But what you don't plan is finding pickling cucumbers at the FM, you figured that the season was long over for those. When your mom was here you gave her a jar of your home made bread and butter pickles, leaving you with only 2 jars to last until next season. (it is your mother's grandmother's recipe you're using, so don't even mention those nasty excuses for bread and butter pickles sold in the stores). So you buy a couple of dozen pickling cukes and a bunch of onions, knowing that tonight you'll be slicing cukes and onions and salting them to pickle tomorrow.....bites into the knitting time, but you really don't like store bought bread and butter pickles (you picky thing you) and you've had a hankering for them and everyone that used to make them for you is dead, leaving.....work for you if you want them. And you do. Very much.

So. You pick your son up at the bus stop and you stop in to the neighbor's by the bus stop and ask her if she'd mind if you picked her apples, as the trees are loaded and it doesn't appear that she uses them. She says no she doesn't mind at all, that she's never done anything with the trees and gives you a couple of bags so you don't have to walk home and grab bags. So. You come home with 2 grocery bags of apples (I actually may go down and pick some more in a couple of days). With which to make applesauce (I was raised on home made applesauce, and if you haven't guessed home made pickles and all sorts of home made stuff, I am spoiled that way). B is planning....apple pies, apple crisps, applesauce. The boy is disappointed because there is going to be no apple pie tonight.

Where does knitting fit in here. You see, it doesn't. K and I went to Farmers Market, then to the mall for a short errand (think shoes and socks), then over to Target. We mustn't forget the quick stop in Hobby Lobby. The Miss K just thought she'd die if we didn't go to the Y. So she went into the child care (her idea of heaven) and I rode the bikes and lifted weights for an hour. I came home fixed dinner, helped with homework sliced up cukes and onions (I thank God for the mandoline my MIL gave me because she couldn't use it). I have merely gazed upon the 2 bags of apples, they can wait until tomorrow while the pickles are in the water canner. This is a night for knitting on a hospital hat. I can knit them in my sleep. I wondered how I'd manage when I set the bar for making one hat a week. I know it doesn't sound like much. Just one baby hat a week, all of the kids but one are in school so I have more (yea right) time. But you know, I can knit gifts, I can knit for the kids or for me. But that hat a week. That's my peace of mind. Yes, I've skipped a week here and there, but I've also knitted 3 hats in a week. I love walking into the hospital with those hats. I think the feeling is much like the one my mom feels when she sees a bald woman and asks "I hope you don't mind my asking, but do you have cancer? Would you like to have one of my hand knitted chemo caps".

And now, my faithful reader(s?) I am rambling because my eyes don't really want to stay open, I'm off to sip some tea and put another couple of rows on this darling lace (simple pattern I've been knitting so long I don't even keep a row count) baby hat. G'night

And here she is!!!