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.

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)....