Freak of Knit-ture

I'm home.  I got in at midnight, home by 1 a.m., in bed around 2.  I'm bushed people.  Yet I did work today.  I must be crazy.

The trip was great.  Now that I'm home I'm cold, because it was, like, 70 degrees every day there.  And on Tuesday, when it rained a bit, it was still warmer than it is here.  Alicia, my best friend, looks great, especially only 1 month after having a baby.  She's amazing.  4 kids.  Not easy.  The new baby is so handsome, he's my new boyfriend.  And yes, there's pictures, I've just been too tired to download them.  And Alicia took a lot too, so I'll post what she sends me when I get them.  The kids (from now on refered to as things # 1 through 4) are brilliant, all of them.  Thing #2 (her eldest son) was getting over a cold, but he's just the most amazing 3 year old I've ever met.  How many of you know a 3 year old who can actually hit a thrown baseball, and we're talking that he can connect, hit it straight, and FAR.  He can also throw a football - spiral and everything, and catch one too.  And tell you all about dinosaurs, and count, and he can do almost the whole alphabet in sign language.  Plus he's just cute.  Thing #1 is too smart for her own good.  I did start teaching her how to knit.  We got her a book/kit at Barnes and Noble on Monday night, and I showed her a few things.  By Tuesday morning before school she was casting on, on her own.  Thing #3 is jealous of her new baby brother, and tries on a fairly regular basis to "take him out."  But she's still a charmer.  And is using sign language to tell you what she wants, and she's not even 2 yet.  (They hired a lady, who I met and really like, to come in 3 days a week in the mornings to help Alicia get everyone off to school and stuff, and this lady is teaching #3 sign language.)  I mean, hell, its only possible to do so much when breast feeding and that kid eats like every 1/2 hour! 

I did get quite a bit of knitting done this trip.  I'm almost finished with a pair of Bearfoot Mountain Colors socks, I just have to put in the afterthought heels.  And I started another pair of toe-up 2 socks on 2 circulars with afterthought heels in Lorna's Laces Jungle Stripe on the plane home.  I have decided to name these socks, The Socks that Barney Shat.  You'll understand when I post pictures.

I came to the realization that I have seen more movies while travelling than I have at home.  So I've decided to start Sarah's Unplanned Travelling Movie Review.  I'll use a set of 5 double-points to rate.  Never mind what size!  Recently seen:  Cinderella Man (on the bus-twice to New York) and Walk the Line (to and from Las Vegas).  Originally I hadn't planned on seeing either of these movies.  I don't like Russel Crowe or Joaquin Phoenix.  But I give them both 5 DPs.  I haven't stopped singing Johnny Cash songs yet!  Needless to say, Walk the Line made me realize EXACTLY what I want for my birthday - the entire Johnny Cash (and Johnny Cash/June Carter) collection on CD, and an I-Pod.  I'll go into further filmular detail tomorrow, when I'm not cross-eyed with jetlag.

Must sleep again.  Now.

I'm so tired its not even describeable.  And I don't think that's a word.  I've spent most of the beginning of the year out of town at trade shows.  Most recently I was at Toy Fair, in New York this past Monday.  Yes, up to NY and back to Baltimore in the same day.  Why?  Because of this.

That's my front yard.  Sunday.  Wanna see the back yard?  I love my back yard.  It's like a little piece of heaven.  And here it is covered in snow.

Good thing I had finished these.  I made them from some handspun I bought from Lynnell at Yarn Rescue.  Just a quick toe up and afterthought heel from worsted weight.  I actually wrote down what I did, so I'll post a pattern.  Yeah, I promise.  I'll get to the damn ducky mittens too.

So anyway, because of the damn snow, I didn't get up to NY on Sunday.  Missed the clown parade, my favorite part of Toy Fair.  Poo.  But I did finish another pair of socks out of Vesper Sock Yarn in Aquamelon.  And I re-started a pair of Jaywalkers in Socks that Rock, Queen Rock.  I'm not sure I like them though.

Now, there's been a lot going on in the news.  I'm choosing not to comment on our esteemed Vice Accident shooting someone, or the completely odd opening ceremonies at the Olympics.  Its just too much.  But on the home front, Conan is now pneumonia free.  And Sydney has developed an abcess on one of his teeth.  And he only has like 6 left!  The worst of it is that it is in one of his eye-teeth, where the root goes into his sinus cavity, which is why he is so sneezy, and the infection can affect his heart.  So I have to go back to the doggy cardiologist with him as soon as I can.  There's $400.  Then they'll probably have to pull his poor doggy tooth, hoping we can avoid anesthesia, because of how it could affect his little oversized ticker.  God knows how much that'll be.  I'm thinking of taking up a collection.

This is what he thinks of it all.

Sweet Sydney-potomus.

I am so sorry Secret Pal!  I'm going to give you the answers to the Secret Pal 7 Questionnaire just as soon as I explain why I haven't already done them.  Oy.  First you'll probably laugh, but then you'll want to cry.

Here goes my week:

On Friday I was in a car accident.  Actually, I was hit.  It was a low impact thing, no one was hurt.  I was in the left lane, advancing to turn, and the guy in the center lane decided he needed to be in my lane, where I was, but he didn't look before he turned.  So he got my car on the passenger side, from the front all the way to the back.

I had to drive up to Ft. Washington, PA with my father to go to the Philadelphia Gift Show (which OBVIOUSLY isn't actually in Philly, but who's really paying attention) on Saturday.  We came back the same day, so its a looooong day, with just me and dad, which usually leads to some sort of unpleasant fireworks.  Fortunately there really weren't any, which is odd, considering I had a headache that had been around for days AND I got my period. 

I spent Sunday doing paperwork that I had been putting off.

Monday, I was supposed to go to some customers, but I never made it out of the house.  I was on the phone with the company I lease my car from, and the insurance people all day.  I have to go to the Geico insurance adjuster NEXT WEEK.  Sheesh.  That and I had to get plane tickets and a hotel room so I can fly to Atlanta this weekend for the Atlanta Gift Show.  Yes, I could've booked earlier, but my father didn't make his mind up until late last week that I was definitely going.  It'll be Saturday to Sunday, but now I've lost yet another weekend.  And there's basically trade shows every week from now until mid February, so I don't know when I'll see another.

Yesterday, I was everywhere, trying to make up for Monday.  Which wasn't so bad.  I just didn't get time to go to the grocery store, but hell, that'll wait.

Today.  Today's the kicker.  We went to bed late last night, I've been struggling with the Crusoe Socks.  Had to frog them once, and I had finally casted back on with 60 stitches yesterday and started again.  I'm using Fleece Artist merino for this and she originally used Koigu, so either Koigu is much stretchier than I give it credit for, or she has teeny tiny feet, because 40-44 stitches never made it past my toes when I tried to try the first go on.  Anyhoo, we went to bed around 1:30 am and I was woken up by Conan around 4:30 am.  Usually this means he just wants to get off the bed and get a drink of water.  Well, around 5:30 am I was awoken to a horrific smell and an upset Conan.  He had had an ass-splosion on the bed (he's done that only once before, both times I didn't get up when he tried to get me to, and both times he didn't mean it).  So of course I get up, take EVERYTHING off the bed, clean clean clean the floor and take the dogs out.  I start the washer and that's when I notice, WATER COMING FROM UNDER THE WASHING MACHINE.  That's not good.  So I check the hoses, I look everywhere, hoping its coming from the back, or something, because UNDER is never good.  Nope, its coming from under the washer and its a fairly good amount of water.  So I finally find someone who can come out tomorrow to look at it.  Just the "diagnosis" is going to cost me almost $100.  And on top of it all, I think to myself, oh self, maybe I should move the basket of clean laundry off of the floor and out of the way of the potential water.  So I do, but somehow manage to poke myself in the eye with my laundry.  So now my eye hurts too.  Geez.  And Conan has started coughing on top of everything, and he's a bit out of it, so I'm even more worried about him.  I'll be sleeping light tonight, huh?

On the upside, I DID get that paperwork done finally, and faxed off to the people it needed to go to.  But I didn't get to go to the post office, which I desperately need to do.  And I still haven't sent off the crappy 2006 Pattern a Day Calendar that I promised to swap with this woman on the Knitlist.  I received the handspun yarn she swapped for it today.  Crap.  So, now I have to do that tomorrow too. 

So anyway, hopefully you are only on the laughing stage.

Now I'll post the SP7 stuff.

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand?

Yes.  I admit it.  I've been known to use acrylic stuff, but I much prefer natural fibers.  Blends are ok, but more wool than nylon/acrylic/poly-crap please.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?

Yes.  I do both, though mostly I knit.  But I have a wheel and once in a while I'll spin something.  Just not recently.

3. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

Storage?  What's that?  Actually I have a Circular Solution and a Double Point Solution, and my straights are kept everywhere and in some needle rolls. 

4. How long have you been knitting? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I've been seriously knitting for about a year now.  I'd consider myself to be of an intermediate skill level.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

You bet yer bippy I do.  Here.

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)

Coffee.  But I love white gardenia too.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

Too much so.  I'm trying to cut down.  Momma's gotta diet.  But you can't go wrong with chocolate.  Or chocolate covered coffee beans....mmm.  I also like Goldenberg's Peanut Chews.  But who doesn't?

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?

Not much.  I can fix things, and once in a blue moon I'll make a card or something, but mainly its fiber stuff.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I have an MP3 player and I'll listen to just about anything.  I haven't been listening to much music right now.

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?

I love green.  But if its bright or has a sparkly thing running through it, I'm hooked.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I'm single, with 2 fur children.  Conan and Sydney.  Both boys.

12. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Anything but ponchos.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?

ALPACA ALPACA ALPACA.  Did you get that?  I'm in love with handpainted and/or handspun stuff.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

Polyester.  Rayon.  Man made goo.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?

Socks and lace.  This week.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Anything.  I haven't found one that I don't like to knit yet.  But I haven't tried everything, so I also don't have a favorite either.

17. What are you knitting right now?

3 pairs of socks and a lace shawl.  Don't ask.  Just know that I'm going to stick to Queen Kahuna's way of doing things, or I'm using dps from now on.

18. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

YES. I. DO.  The more useful the better, because I like to show them off.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?

Circs.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

Give me my addis.  Otherwise I'll use my Denise set, thank you.

21. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

Both, but I'm looking to upgrade to a wood swift and a jumbo winder.

22. How did you learn to knit?

When I was about 6.  My mother and my grandmother.  But I had no concentration then, so I was never any good.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?

I guess about 6 months. Maybe longer.  Its the Bevin Tank.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?

I like my dogs.  Otherwise, armadillos.

25. What is your favorite holiday?

Halloween, or the 4th of July.

26. Is there anything that you collect?

Armadillos. 

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

Interweave, Vogue Knitting

28. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on?

I want Big Girls Knit when it comes out.  And I want to add Elizabeth Zimmerman to my knitting library.

29. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

I want to start doing intarsia and fair isle.

30. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I wear a 7 1/2 to 8 shoe.  I have an almost 9" ankle, and the same with the ball of my foot.  I have better measurements someplace.....

31. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)

March 18th.

There you go Secret Pal!  Hope that helps.  Now stop crying about my day and get back to knitting!

May all  your puppies be fuzzy and may your yarn have no knots.

I swear I think about blogging more than I actually do it.  I have all of this great crap floating around in my head, but it likes to flitter away while I knit instead of blog.  And I have no idea whatsoever which one should take precedence.  You tell me.  I had this great post all ready last night, I had typed it up and uploaded some pictures, and then I accidentally hit the wrong button and *poof* there it went into computer Never-Never land.  I actually thought about crying.  So I'll try to start again. 

By the way, I am collecting patterns for baby boys.  That's right, Auntie Sarah's Swirly of Love, which is currently OTN, but only being sporadically worked on until Sprout is finished (mainly its become my travel project, because I can stuff it into a bag, so it goes with me to doctors offices and such), will be going to a baby boy.  I think I mentioned before that my best friend, yup the one who just moved to Las Vegas, is percolating baby #4.  Who woulda thunk it?   Look closely, you can see the gorgeous detail.  I hid a little heart in there, but the picture is so blindingly red, that I don't think you'll be able to find it.  I promise I'll have it done by the time I go out to Las Vegas next month.

And then here I am, with only fur-children, and nothing on the horizon.  Don't get me wrong, I love my boys , but do I really have to say it?  And as much as people say "Oh, you're only 30-whatever, you have plenty of time," or "there's nothing wrong with being a single woman over 30," its bullshit.  They all jump to conclusions or look at you funny.   I really don't mean to go on a self-pity thing, but for all of the rest of us out there you know what I mean.  I kind of brought this one on myself tonight.  I was reading the 2 blogs that I need to get my daily fix from, Knit and Tonic and Stitch Marker.  Wendy and Larissa, I love you guys, but after reading about Girlfriend (I need one of her so I can knit cool stuff!) and Sebastian (just the babiest of babes), I really feel like I'm missing something.  That, and you guys write so well, it well, makes me realize why I never got far in creative writing.

Ok.  Back to random knitting.  Almost done with 2nd side of Sprout (you may know sprout as Orangina.  My Orangina #2 actually).  I was going to take a picture of the big pile of yarn that will become Madeline, but the batteries in my digital camera died.  I know!  How very convenient!  But its the truth.  So I will have to post that gratuitous yarn pic later.

Meanwhile, I got an e-mail from Nick and Vivi and the kids yesterday.  They made it to France ok and the kids are enrolled in school for about a month.  Apparently, our Nina is the most popular girl in town!  I am told that many of the boys have already declared their love for her and all the girls are inviting her to parties.  (Nina is the one in the bottom, right-hand corner)

Wish I was there.

I'll close with some pictures of my fur-children.  I have no life.  Just knitting and my boys.

Conan                              Sydney

Thats all I have to say to you.

Actually, no its not. I really have been lax in talking about my knitting.  And idiots, but we'll leave those for later.  I've actually been a finishing beyotch.  I finished the Cable Eight sweater from the Spring 2005 IK yesterday morning.  I'll post pictures once I've blocked the cable-y mess that it is, otherwise I just look like a cabled blob.  But my big pride and joy is the Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi shawl that I finished!  Had to frog a few times because I lost track of my stitches, but the end result is gorgeous.  And huge.  I'll have to take pictures of that too.  Hah!  I'm such a tease, aren't I?

Here's a picture from my cousin to cheer you up.  Its dumbass and his dad on vacation.

And here's a joke from Nick and Vivi, newly arrived in France.

Q: What is George W. Bush's position on Roe v. Wade?

A: He really doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans.

Without ever knowing that Jane Fonda had threesomes.

Sheesh.

Well hello again!  I know its been a long time, but I have a good excuse.   I'm back, lighter one gall-bladder.  Amongst other things.  I had gall-bladder surgery on the 8th.  Laparascopically (god only knows if I spelled that right...).  I have 4 little scars on my stomach right now.  The picture I put in my last post was only a few days after getting home.  Its not so easy to take a picture upside down.  I've had so many posts planned, but its been exhausting here in Puppy-topia.

Not only did I cast on for a sock pre-surgery, but I knit the little bastard in the recovery room and then in my room, until I got home.  It was finished not long after, and so was its leetle friend. 

Needless to say, I spent a lot of time knitting, or sleeping, mainly on my back.  Which gave me the opportunity to take some of these pictures.

In the meantime, Auntie Peggie became a GRAMMA!  So I had to knit up these for little Gwynneth.

I forgot to take pictures of the finished pair....poo.

I went back to working a bit too early, but no worries.  But not a week after my staples were removed...and trust me, I had a whole SWINGLINE (that's a stapler brand for those of you who've never had to work in an office :) ) full of 'em, I had to go back to manual labor big time, for the Washington Gift Show.  Trade Show from hell.  Louise (and you know who you are..) if I had shat something up as well as you have this show, I'dve been fired long ago.  We've been doing this trade show since I could stand, and now its a joke.  But that was over this past Wednesday.  Now I'll be working this weekend to catch up.  I have to go out to 2 customers.  But thank goodness for Sunday knitting group!  I'm working on a Pi Shawl, but I'm prolly gonna have to frog it, because I screwed up the lacy part somewhere.  So I'm not going to take pictures of it.  But I will say that its being done in cream colored baby ull.  Soft.  Mmmmm.  I did finally finish the Branching Out Scarf.  And blocked it. 

Now to package it up and send it off to Miss Glory, Duchess of Toys.  Its a thank you for having my back and also the pink magic fairy wand (WITH MARIBOU!) that you see in the bottom of the picture.  And yes, yes that is another Clapotis that you see there.  I'm doing it in K1C2 2nd Time Cotton.

In newsier news, Conan is going to be a big brother!  Actually, he's getting a big brother, but since he was here first, he'll be the big, little brother.  See how that works?  His name is Sydney, and he's 10.  We're getting him on Monday.  So hopefully I'll have more updates soon!

In the meantime, I will leave you with what I call, MEDITATIONS ON A GREENIE.

Good night.

I have staples in my stomach and some yahoo decides they need to leave religious tracts as commentary!?!  What the eff?  I've already deleted it, shoulda kept it and blog-spammed them back.  Oh well.

Fun shit to come later.  Right now my staples itch.

Ok. The reason I haven't been blogging this time is really cool.

(Excuse me while I fall off of my chair in hysterics for a second...I just watched Conan go into the yarn room and make himself at home on one of my knitting bags. Now he's just looking at me like I'm interrupting him, and what the HELL is all this yarn doing around him!)

Back to my excuses.

So the reason I haven't been blogging is because I made a little stop at the Hadassah shop around the corner (thats like a Goodwill for us Jews, which in my case the Goodwill is about 4 miles up the road, this was closer) to see if I could find a sweater or 2 to recycle. Everything in the store was 1/2 price! After I piled up about like a gazillion recycle-able sweaters on the counter, some of the old ladies there commented about how ready for winter I'd be. When I told them that I planned on ripping them all apart and knitting them into something else....well, you'da thought I just came up with proof of Cold Fission or something. They all thought it was incredibly neat that I was doing that, and then one of them said, "But we have yarn." BUT WE HAVE YARN!!! I had walked past this basket of yarn like 3 times and didn't see it! All of the yarn in there was at most $3.00 a bag, some was even 50 cents. And that was before taking 1/2 off. I bought it all. The whole escapade cost me like $44. Needless to say I've been spending time unravelling sweaters for the past few nights.

Plus I started 2 toe up socks. That's 2 socks, 1 each of 2 different types of yarn. One pair will be for me and one for my mom. I'm trying the Pom Squad pattern from MagKnits. Though if I have issues with that pattern, I'll try this.

Wish me luck!