Thursday, September 28, 2006

Progress


Well, I did get some knitting done. I had a workshop on pastoral care to attend on Saturday, so I spent some time working on That Sock.

I have the heel flap done. But I don't know where I put the directions...sigh...at least it is an online pattern, so I have saved it to my hard drive and even if I lose it I can go back to MagKnits and get it again.

Now I will be doing that little pocket in the heel before picking up the stitches on the edges of the flap and turning the heel. That's the part where I always think that a sock looks like some sort of mad demented puppet...kind of like the Alien with those weird teeth that moved sideways instead of up and down...and all that drool coming out. It's exactly how my daughter looks when she is getting her braces worked on (don't tell HER I said that, it would produce a chorus of "MOTHER!!!! HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT!!!" that I don't really want to hear!) They put this kind of plastic thing in her mouth that holds her lips away from her teeth and I always think, "Alien!!!" while she has it in...

Monday, September 18, 2006

Not a whole lot of knittin' goin' on...


Okay, there has been some! Evidence:

I added a couple of squares to the Mitered Baby Blanket, my one-time Olympic knitting project. I'd like to finish it and get it done, already!

I also added a few rows to That Sock. I'm amazed to say that it is time to start the heel...I was beginning to think I'd never ever get there.

This week is promising to be rainy...AGAIN. Yesterday was beautiful...I had to enjoy it while it lasted, but since rain is threatening, what better time to pull out all those UFO's and try to polish off as many as possible? None!

And while I'm at it, I might as well celebrate "Talk Like a Pirate" day tomorrow. Never heard of it? Check out here: Talk Like A Pirate

And while you're at it, check out the knitting pattern available on a link on the website! Then go visit here: Knit Like a Pirate

I had to get the windex after I read the opening paragraph on that site! I just wonder if I have to nerve to go to the chiropractor tomorrow and when he says, "How are you doing, Janine?" I can say, "I be fine, arggghhhhh!!!"

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

That Sock Goes to the Dentist

Here is That Sock again. Since I haven't really been knitting all that much, I had to look again at the last photo I took of it to tell if it has grown any.

Today.






Last month.








Eeehh....not much, eh? I guess I need to get my rear in gear! That sock got to go out and flaunt itself at the pedontist and, I have to say, as usual it garnered lots of attention. I got your standard, "I can't do that, I don't have the patience" from one of the office workers. I told her that, for me, it took up a lot of time that would ordinarily be spent waiting...essentially, I knit to promote my own patience because if I didn't have knitting, I would not be able to sit and wait with any grace whatsoever. Does it mean I'm any more patient than a person who sits and reads magazines? No, but the person who reads magazines doesn't end up with a gorgeous pair of socks. And again, the dentist assumed I was knitting them for my daughters; she's long admired my knitting and loves seeing the sweaters my daughters love to wear that I made.

Laurel sailed through with flying colors. I didn't even get the usual recitation of wrongs and griefs afterwards. A large Frostie and a large order of fries from Wendy's (they are nice and soft so she could manage them) seemed to make everything cool (even if I had to run her uniform blouse and skirt through the laundry to get the inevitable stains out...chocolate milk/ice cream is the WORST for staining!) and I've promised that the tooth fairy will provide money to go to Barnes & Nobles in exchange for the two teeth. Laurel has finally accepted that I am the tooth fairy...she hung on to the story for longer than I ever thought possible.

Tonight we get to go to the school open house, so I am going to spend some time stamping today. I just finished cutting and mounted almost all the ones I ordered. I'll save the knitting for this evening. Slowly I am getting into the mood to do more; I pulled out my Monica Ferris mysteries and that always helps and I managed to find my elusive Page Minder so I could read and knit at the same time.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

A Dishcloth is a Many Splendored Thing


First, let's get this out of the way.

What happened to September? It doesn't seem to be working anymore. This is our tree, which I have shown you before. This is early September and I'm starting to see a few leaves changing on the tree.

This is almost unheard of. This tree usually doesn't start to show color until the end of September at the very earliest. And this rain. What the heck is up with that? This month has been incredibly gloomy so far...I don't much like this, though I love the temperatures. I'm happy not to pay to air condition my home and not to have to turn on the heat...yet. But I'm wondering if the furnace is going to have to go on this month at the rate we're going.

Okay, now that I have officially complained about the weather (the sign of a true Michigander), let me show you my Pinwheel Dishcloth!

I finished it last night as I watched the last show on 9/11 I hope to have to watch for a while.

Isn't it nice? And it is fun to knit, though I screwed up a couple of times and had to rip back, but only a few rows. This is a very sturdy and attractive dishcloth. The pattern is on my pattern blog.


So now what? I guess I need to poke through my UFO's and finish something, since I *think* I am probably out of Sugar 'n' Cream to make dishcloths with...of course, there is always THAT Sock, which is going to get some airing at the pedontist today...I have to take Laurel to get two teeth removed...this kid has more teeth than mouth, apparently. I'm really not looking forward to this; pain always brings out the worst in Laurel; she moans, she groans and she tells me everything that is wrong with her life...it just comes pouring out. She has always been exactly the same...it was cute when she was little, but now that she is 11, it is a little not so cute anymore. I remember when she got shots when she was 4 years old...I heard everything about what was wrong with her life (she was 4! What is wrong at 4?!?!) at preschool and at home. Doesn't help that she has always been very articulate and has always been precocious as far as vocabulary. Oh well. She can be a lot of fun at this age and I am enjoying watching her bloom into a teenager...slowly.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Easily amused, that's me

Is it wrong to be so dang pleased with myself over this?

I finished the second Idiot's dishcloth last night as we watched the Tigers win over Minnesota. Sorry for you Twins fans but....YAY! (Okay...back to our regularly scheduled program....)

I'm also geeked because I got a copy of my other dishcloth pattern after appealing to the KnitTalk list I am on on Yahoo groups. I had posted the pattern to the KnitList back in February 2000 and had subsequently lost my files. The group archives only go back to November 2000 and the archives on the previous list host are long gone, so I thought I was out of luck. Happily, Mary Mort had saved my pattern from way back when and was able to supply it to me.

It's now uploaded to the pattern blog and I plan on knitting another one now that I have this one finished.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

In which the author proves she still remembers how to knit...

I tried to post about this yesterday, only to have the evil internet gremlins eat my post and turn off my internet connection, thereby insuring that I lost every thing I typed. Computers suck, man.

And now, with my kinders all in bed, my man off to jam, and me here listening to "Everybody Loves Raymond", I crack another Diet Coke in a futile attempt to keep myself from going out in the kitchen and finding something to nibble on and get to work yet again, in a, mostly likely, vain attempt to amuse my readers. I hope you appreciate it.

This past weekend, I actually finished a knitting project. Don't all drop dead, now! Reach for the paper bag you keep next to your computer monitor for such moments. Breathe...breathe...

There. Feel better? I know I do.

It was a dull weekend, as Labor Day weekends go. We had promised to drive to Kalamazoo for the day. And having thought about the 2 hour drive there and the 2 hour drive back and the parlous state of my dishcloth collection, I decided to bring along a dishcloth to knit and actually get something done. Most of my dishcloths date back to my last dishcloth knitting frenzy and have been developing holes at an alarming rate, to the result that I am down to one or two. The original color of this yarn has long disappeared and they are all a uniformly ugly tan color from their contact with tomato sauce and ketchup in the dishwasher, where I hang the current one over the edge of the upper rack to sanitize it.

So I jumped on the internet in the morning on Friday and searched for the ubiquitous diagonal dishcloth with the eyelet border that everyone and their grandma makes. I don't keep a copy of this thing in my pattern books...why should I when everybody obligingly posts it to their websites? I found a copy, went stash-diving for some Sugar 'n Cream (in shades of pink), found my short #8's and loaded up my little Vera Bradley bag and I was all set.

I was 1/3rd done before we even got out of metro Detroit. Because Friday wasn't considered to be part of Labor Day weekend, the road construction crews were still hard at work, with the usual one man digging a hole and ten other men standing around and watching. I don't mean to dis' construction workers, really I don't. But imagine how much knitting would get done if there was only one of us knitters actually knitting and ten of us standing around watching? Not much.

So we reached the M-14/96/275 interchange and it had backed up as usual due to construction work. I said, "I think you should get on 275 and take Ann Arbor Road to M-14...it would take maybe 10 minutes more than usual, but you'd get around the construction."

"Naw," said Dan, "I'm going to take 275 to 94 and go that way."

All was well until we were about to Joy Road, when the rot set in. We ran into a huge traffic jam. By the time we were south of Ford Road, we finally saw an electronic sign that explained it all: 275 was closed at Michigan Avenue. Closed. Not narrowed down to one lane. No lanes. None. No wonder we were just crawling along.

Well, we finally reached a turn around and we did just that and headed back to Ann Arbor Road. Dan said, "I guess I should have just taken this to begin with." I practically had to jam my knitting needle through my palm to keep myself from saying, "I told you so!" but I managed to keep my jaws clamped together firmly. There are some thoughts that are better left unexpressed.

By the time we got to Kalamazoo, I was almost done with the dishcloth. I finished it while we visited with the in-laws. My MIL expressed surprise that you could actually knit a dishcloth; all the ones she had ever made were crocheted.

I was kerflumoxed because I have made dishcloths for a long time. She's seen me doing it before. I gave her one. Granted, it was maybe five years ago or something like that.

This was so upsetting to me, that someone would actually not remember that you can knit dishcloths or that they would totally forget getting one from me, especially since I clearly remember her telling me it was the best dishcloth she had ever had and she dearly wished she could have another, that I totally lost my head.

I gave her the one I just finished.

So now I'm knitting another. I've spent some time looking for the patterns for the ones I have invented and I found one and posted it to my pattern blog. I'm still looking for the other one; based on a unit used in a Just One More Row pattern that I posted to the Knit List long ago...it's not in the archive on the Yahoo group site, so I am lost as to where to try next. I lost my knitting files when the zip disks I'd copied them all to got corrupted. Like I said...computers suck.

In other news....

My son is developing "wit". This is an amazing thing to me, since we have been used to his limited verbal skills for some time. I've often wondered just how much he understands of what he says himself, but thankfully, he's proved himself more than intact in the intellect department.

The other day we were watching the Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring. He appears, by the way, to have gotten over the nightmares he had watching this last year. ANYWAY...

Mr. Squatter was watching with all of us as Gandalf, on the top of Isengard, catches a moth and sends it off to fetch Gwahir, the eagle. The moth flutters off, the camera zooms down the tower and into the pit below Isengard where the fires are burning and the orcs are making who knows what....

And Billy said, "Meanwhile, down in the hole...."

It took us all by surprise, so that we laughed like crazy. Who knew...my son, the raconteur.