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)