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.