It's only natural...

Isn't it? That when you get to the point where you have been working for something for a while and you are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel...



I'm almost to the bottom ribbing!!! Only 2 1/2 more inches to go. That's a lot of lunch monitoring, I tell ya! So it's only natural that...well...

I would start SOMETHING NEW!!!

Yes, I said I was going to stick to UFO's, but...somehow...it just HAPPENED!!!



Yes, it is yet another Babies & Bears Sweater (Cottage Creations). I have lost count of how many of these I have made; certainly I have run out of room on the page in the back where you are supposed to list the ones you made and to whom you gave them. And this is my second copy of the pattern, so it's possible that there were more listed on the one I lost.

I blame Mary, my friend, who wanted to learn to knit. Remember how I took her to the LYS for Superbowl Sunday and we bought her stuff to make a baby blanket? Well, we decided to go to the local library's knitting night and I got her started...and before I left, well the yarn and pattern for the B & B just jumped right into my knitting bag when I wasn't looking!! And the needle too....and then it seemed like I couldn't start it, since I had forgotten that you start at the cuff and you need DPs for that, but it was like KISMET! The right sized DP's were in my little tool box I keep in my bag! It was a sign!

So I caved. I could also blame the yarn, since I have a thing about Plymouth Encore and I also have this thing where every time I see suitable yarn for the B & B, I really want to see just how it will work in one. Because of the interesting construction, self-striping yarn and variagated yarn does really unique things.


I love what this one is doing.

I am also blaming the squatter's teacher, since I got to thinking about the newborn sized B & B I already have made and am going to give her...thinking about how the baby wouldn't be able to wear it for very long, since she is due in April. It will get too warm for the baby to wear fairly quickly!

Yeah, I know this is Michigan and we will still have chilly days into May if this cooling trend we are currently experiencing keeps up, but I am in the middle of my self-delusion, so please don't interrupt! So I thought I really should make a bigger one for the fall/winter, right? Right?

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Pumpin' Out Da Knits!!!

Really. I don't know WHEN I've gotten this much knitting done, at least, not in recent memory. Lookie:



This is the Neck Down V-Neck Cardigan from Knitting Pure & Simple. Now that I've put the sleeve stitches on yarn holders, it's really going fast! I was a bit worried that the way the yarn pooled would change once I did that, but it hasn't really. Is very pretty, no? I've been working on it every single day, during lunch monitoring, church coffee hour, waiting for kids to come out of school or the bus, and while at home.

AND that's not all!!! (Can you tell I'm excited?)



Here is my Celtic Braid Socks! I turned the heel on the second sock during our church's annual meeting. Soon this pair will end up joining the smug married socks in my drawer. Cannot wait. Because this will be the first sock-weight wool socks I have ever made and KEPT. All the other ones were either cotton, given away, or worsted weight. Yay me. Booyah!

Once these socks are complete, I will return to the Jaywalker socks I started a long while back:



Silly me! I didn't even remember turning the heel on this sock! This may go faster than I thought!

Well, off to get ready to go lunch monitor yet again. Oh joy.

Progress is a many splendored thing...

I really feel like I'm getting somewhere!

It's been so long since I have knitted and the urge to start something new is pretty intense, but I am also feeling the urge to get many of the UFO's cluttering up my stash done and out of the way. So I am happy to announce the near completion of one, the better-than-I-thought progress of another, and the resurrection of a third.

First, here is Laurel's poncho:



It's finished except for the I-cord drawstring for the hood and the fringe. Now I hate fringing things...hate it with a passion, so it might be a couple of days before I wind myself up to doing it. And then I will have to block it and since it is almost all acrylic, that's going to be a bit of work. Holding a steam iron close enough to help the edge relax and uncurl, yet not so close as to melt the thing. Ugh. Not looking forward to it.

For a while, I wondered if Laurel would even get this thing, since she told me, "I will probably just wear it to bed, because now I have different ideas about fashion." Oh. Well, maybe someone else would like this thing. But Laurel is pretty possessive, so she says she definitely wants it. She's tried it on and it is very warm and soft, so I can see she will probably wear it around the house, at least. Because it's been so stinkin' cold, anyone would be a fool NOT to wear a nice poncho like this one.

I did something interesting at the neck. The stitches at the neck opening were getting pulled this way and that by the hood, so I did a bit of buttonhole stitch to stabilize them with the tail end of the yarn I used when I started the hood. I think it was a marvelous fix and did exactly what I wanted it to:



I also have been working on one of my lonely singleton socks. I find this pattern (the Celtic Braid sock by Cabin Fever) to be difficult to work...all those cables with these tiny needles! So I've slogged away at the second sock since I finished my last pair of Ann Norling socks, thinking it was going to take forever to finish this, the second sock. I had to run out and buy a new cable needle, since the one I was using for this project disappeared somewhere. I was thinking it might just go back into the UFO bin, but when I pulled it out today with its mate to take a picture, I found that I was much farther along that I even thought to be:




Hooray! It looks like I may only have one, maybe two more full repeats of both cable twists to get to the bottom of the cuff, then it's just a matter of doing the heel and running down to the toe. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! So it looks like this sock will be spared from the UFO vault after all!

Finally, once my idiot knitting project (the one that I can do without thinking about it much, i.e. the poncho) was off the needles, I needed another. The Celtic Cable sock is not, by any stretch of the imagination, idiot knitting. I needed something to take with me to lunch monitor, an activity which requires eternal vigilance, lest the students start throwing food, standing on their desks and generally acting like monkeys in the zoo. And I like to read at the same time, if only to entertain the students, who are fascinated by my knitting, but also because I have a horror of being bored. I also found myself very popular on Friday with the lovers of cat's cradle, since Emily has been teaching all her friends how to do it. My spare ball of waste yarn furnished many girls with the necessary "string" for this activity. I'm so dang popular, LOL!

So with the thought of idiot knitting yesterday, I dug this out of the closet:



This is the V Neck Neckdown Cardigan for Women from Knitting Pure & Simple #994. I am only about 6 inches down from the neck and have about 14 more rows until I can divide for the sleeves. This will be the perfect idiot knitting project as it is just stockinette, with a few increases on the knit rows. Once I divide for the sleeves, I won't even have those! I love this colorway of Plymouth Encore too. This sweater is for ME. The last sweater I made myself (from a kit) makes me look like a puff ball waiting to explode. I needed something a little sleeker and this seems to fit the bill. But since I started it in 2005, the question is, "Will it fit ME?" Because ever since I had my thyroid removed, I have been steadily putting on weight. Sigh. It sucks to get older.

Well, I better close this out. I have successfully resisted yet another week from going to the yarn store. I am full of intestinal fortitude! Booyah!

FO!!

I'm over the moon that I have completed these so quickly!

The Happy Socks have been flaunting themselves everywhere: they went to church a couple of Sundays in a row while I was working on them and I packed them along yesterday after they were done to show off. I worked on them on our trip to Kalamazoo; unfortunately, my days of car knitting while going to the 'Zoo are over, since Dan cannot stay awake when he drives long distances any more, so I end up driving both ways. But I was able to do a bit while there and finished the second sock shortly after coming home. Now my feet will be Happy Feet in their Happy Socks!

My mom is always interested in what I'm knitting, being a knitter herself. My kids all got hand-knit slippers and mittens for Christmas and she also gave the girls scarves she knit for them. William was bummed, because he didn't get one. The last time my mom gave him a scarf, he was less than thrilled, so she decided to save herself the effort. Honestly, the scarves are garter stitch made with Lion Brand Homespun, so they are a bit girly (she gave me one too.) But I could still see that he wanted one anyway. So I told him I'd make him a scarf and he could come down and pick out the yarn from the stash. I'll just have to be careful what I show him!

So after I was done with the scarf, I pulled out Laurel's poncho and have been going to town with that. But it isn't the most thrilling knitting, so the question becomes, "What should I do next? Start something new or finish a UFO?" I voted for the latter and decided the Celtic Cable sock should be the one, since it is the project closest to completion in my array of singleton sock projects.

BUt then, oh then...I found that my favorite skinny cable needle that I like to use for socks (not the ridged Brittany ones, but a skinny metal cable needle with the crook in the middle of it) is missing!!! I combed the house to see if it would turn up in any of those places I stash things I find and don't have time to put away properly. I went through my living room knitting bag and it wasn't there either. Poot. Guess I'll be heading out to Michael's to get one with my 40% off coupon!

The ridged Brittany one is just too thick and grabby for use with socks and makes cabling a PITA. So I really NEED this new needle!

In the meantime, I started cataloguing the stash and putting it up on Ravelry. I love being able to do that...and it's fun to take a trip down memory lane in the stash.

Dream....dream, dream, dream....

I know when I'm getting excited about something when I dream about it.

I don't usually remember my dreams, mind you. But this morning before I woke up, I was having a dilly and it had a lot of knitting content. I was packing for a trip I was taking for work (I don't work outside the home, though I have been looking.) The trip was going to occur on a bus (fancy travel bus, not school bus) and we were supposed to meet up at the local high school. We had to wear a black suit with a white shirt, though when I looked at what everyone else was wearing, they were getting around this requirement in very creative ways. But not me, I had my suit...if only I could find it.

I had to get to the high school by 11:30 so I wouldn't miss the bus leaving. So I'm frantically packing, telling Dan he has to get ready to take me there so I wouldn't miss the bus. I'm looking through my knitting projects trying to decide what to take with me...the poncho? the sock? Oh, take 'em all, I decide. Where are my snips? Do I have my instructions?

I'm trying to charge my phone, which changes it's backsplash and announces it belongs to Sparky's Taco Shop instead. Wha'? I don't even know where that is, much less why my phone is doing this! And come to think of it, this is my OLD phone, the one I got through AAA with the black and white screen...how very strange!

I'm frantically looking for all the stuff that needs to go in my suitcase, my knitting tote, etc. and my husband is leisurely getting himself ready. I keep telling him, "Hurry up! We have to leave, it's almost 11:30 and they aren't going to wait for anyone!!!" It's 11:25 and he is just getting in the shower! I'm never going to make it!!!

He gets mad and I get mad, each time I think I'm ready, he's not and when he seems to be, I think of one more thing I need and the result is I wake up grinding my teeth. Weird.

So what does this mean? Is the bus trip wearing the black suit symbolic for death and my husband's stalling tactics to prevent me from going on that trip? Or is a subconscious expression of a desire not to leave the home to work (my favorite explanation, obviously) and my husband is trying to stall that as well? Or is simply the result of too much thinking about knitting before bed?

Anyway, interesting that I had so much knitting in the dream. It's not the only knitting dream I've had lately, though I can't remember the others, only a vague impression that there was knitting somewhere!

Here's the Happy Sock, happy to be finished and even happier that it's mate has been cast on and has a modest inch to it's name:



And I pulled a UFO out of the big knitting bag and worked on that as well:



THIS is Laurel's poncho, using Plymouth Encore and Knitting Pure & Simple's Women's Poncho pattern (#246). I am 18" on this sucker and have 7 1/2" to go before I can do the border and bind off. Then it's just a matter of knitting the hood. Laurel is not as eager to get this garment as she used to be, but let me know, in that infuriating way that teenagers have, that she is still open to receiving it. Oh, thank you, thank you, Laurel, for letting me have the priviledge of knitting for you! Pheh!

Happy Sock

Yes, I could not resist starting a new sock. It's all because of these:



These are my sad sad socks. My last pair of completely wool socks. After this photo they eventually just got way too felted to wear (you can see here that they already stood up by themselves!)...I used to force my feet into them, but at some point, they just got felted beyond my ability to do that, or my feet got fatter. I like to think the former.

So with the advent of winter and no warm, cozy wool socks to keep my feet happy, I felt (oops! the F word!!!) I mean I thought it was a good idea to make a new pair. I went down last week to rummage through the stash, where I was sure I had another skein of Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool and so I did and so I did. Start knitting, that is.

I went with my favorite Ann Norling sock pattern (#12) and proceeded to cast on. The wool felt a little under worsted weight, but remembering how quickly the other ones had "bloomed" after wearing (the bottoms felted the first day just on contact with the sole of my Birks), I decided that I would stick to the worsted weight directions. The colorway is "Columbine". And I really love how they are turning out:



And since this yarn knits up so quickly, I can be confident that this sock will soon be a happy twosome. And not be left a lonely singleton sock, like so many others.

Well, I'm going to go do the toe of this sock and cast on the next one ASAP! And resolutely NOT look at anything else in the stash, nuh uh, no way, no way....

More than a year!

Since I posted to this blog!

I have been knitting a little bit in that year, but I haven't been finishing much is my lousy excuse.

A while back someone asked about this:




Yes, I finally did finish this mitered baby blanket a year ago in November! It took FOREVER. Sigh...I worked on it betimes while I was lunch monitoring at the kids school. It was gifted to the crisis pregnancy center this past spring.

So it's been a long dry season, knitting wise. I've taken a bash at the poncho I started for Laurel, but that is also taking a long, long time and is not the most inspirational knitting. And I did a dishcloth, somewhere, sometime. But recently I began to feel the urge to knit again. And since my children's school has a mitten tree for needy children in the lobby and I don't really have the cash to buy anything to donate, I decided to dig some yarn out of the long-neglected stash and whip up some mittens. And since the pattern I used (Sirdar 294) with Kool Kidz Chunky, of which I had a few odds and ends leftover from other projects, knits up really fast, I was able to make a hat as well.




I've already cast on for another pair using the hot pink yarn that you see tying the mittens and hat together so they can be hung on the tree. I took these up to school today when I was lunch monitoring and found a nice spot, front and center, to put them. They are the only hand made items on the tree. I have until Thursday to get some more done and hope to at least have the mittens ready by then.

Well, it's off to cook dinner for my husband's birthday and to bully my son into doing his homework! A mom's work is never done!

Life is what happens...

Hey everyone!

I have been feeling guilty for not posting to this blog for so long and don't have a hope in heck that I have a single reader left on the planet. Didn't help that in February I came down with influenza and by March I had pneumonia...it's hard to knit when you are sleeping and when you're not sleeping you're coughing.

Life has been galloping along at a great pace. And I have finally picked up my knitting and started giving it a bash every now and then. It's very puzzling to me, a person who was so totally obsessed by knitting for years and years, that the desire to do it can leave so suddenly and almost absolutely.

I know that the decision to stop attending knitting classes (and class is a loose term...more like a social club in a yarn store with buying discounts) played a big part in it. And my addiction to knitting magazines also is gone, which is a good thing in a way, I have far too many of them. But I've got all this YARN and I hate to give it away and don't think I'd ever be able to sell it for anything like it is worth. And when I open the tubs and look it over, I think, "But I don't WANT to get rid of this! I love this yarn! I want to keep it!" So I must just manage to reinspire myself somehow, but stay out of the yarn store so I won't add anymore to the stash. The stash is monolithic, it looms ahead on the landscape like a standing stone, demanding to be regarded, but not requiring any more action than awe and admiration. But when it is looming ahead, it remains the stash and nothing is done with it...it's useless. Time to start carving it into pleasing shapes

So I have decided to finish the project that seemed to be the one that killed the knitting drive, the Mitered Baby Blanket. If I can only finish this, I decide with magical thinking, I can remove the knitters block and get going whittling down that huge stash downstairs. Here it is as it is now. Compare it to the next photo which is what it looked like the last time I posted about it:







Someone tell me please...I've gotten some more done and it looks like it, doesn't it? The problem with knitting things in units is that it begins to feel like running in place, you do the same thing over and over and never get anywhere. Only 15 squares to go! Then the border of course, but that will be a RELIEF to get to that. Our church is holding it's annual baby shower for the crisis pregnancy center through the end of May and I *will* get this done to donate as I originally planned. I will, I will, I will......

Still alive...though not knitting

Yes, I'm still around. Did you miss me?

I have not been knitting, not even a little bit. I don't know what happened. Usually I am at least putting a few rows on the current sock, but I just can' t get myself going on anything, not even at the doctor's office.

But I just had to post this, because I saw it featured in the Detroit Free Press on Sunday and thought it was a real hoot:



Gotta wonder if Carol Duvall has seen this?

IKEA...wow

Mary wonders what I thought of IKEA.

I thought it was great! And I managed to get out of there only spending $13 (plus my lunch cost.)

I wanted to look at dining room chairs since ours are mostly broken. Funny how you can have furniture for 8 years and it remains fairly intact until your children are old enough to start abusing it and then it falls to pieces. We've had an oak dining room set that we bought in 1990. 3 of the 4 chairs are now broken and the fourth has gotten mighty wobbley. We've tightened all that can be tightened. Time to get some new chairs.

And at IKEA you can find some fairly decent ones starting at only $20 a piece. They aren't really big, but they would be better than folding chairs, which is what we're using now. So I went to *look* at them. In fact, the friend who went with me drives a Mustang, so I asked if she minded driving since we wouldn't be able to buy anything big at IKEA since her car is so dinky! I just wanted to *look*, then I planned on coming home, consulting the catalog again and making a list to come back with.

I found a couch I really liked...again, I *looked* at it. Not bought, looked. And I *looked* at a lot of stuff. It was quite overwhelming, but not as bad as I feared. It would be easy to get lost in there, but they do provide maps and since I don't have that chromosone that prevents my asking for directions, I didn't.

We had lunch at the little restaurant in there and it was quite delicious (roast beef & potato salad.) In the end I walked out with some kiddy cups, little bowls to match, and a jar of lingonberries for my friend, Mary, who had asked me to pick some up. Like I said, I *looked*.

Why all this emphasis on *looking*? Well, I got home and talked to Dan about what I had found. Immediately, he assumed that a) I was itching to buy everything I liked immediately and that b) I had not really properly considered the kind of chair we should buy. He got online and proceeded to show me all kinds of ridiculously overpriced chairs that were no better than the ones I had *looked* at at IKEA for a lot less money. Grrr...

He is always telling me we should wait to buy anything nice until the kids have moved out. So this was my solution: cheap chairs from IKEA that will last long enough to get our kids out of the house. And if they break, they are only $20 to $40 to replace! And IKEA stuff DOES last a long time; I have a friend who has been furnishing her house from IKEA for years and she has 6 kids and the stuff has held up!

Now he tells me we should buy something nice that will last. I'm sorry...my neck is sore from being whipped back and forth watching that tennis ball...and they say women can't make up their minds...

I definitely am going back out there and I will go for the cinnamon roll next time, Mary!

On the knitting front, I have worked a bit at the Celtic Cabled sock...I'm gonna have to suck it up and reprint the Jaywalker pattern, since I still can't find it.

All woods must end....

I think that's the verse in the song that Frodo sings in the Old Forest in the Fellowhsip of the Ring...the one that the trees don't like...

But it's what I thought about as I worked on the Mitered Square Baby blanket on Saturday. My kids school parish had their annual festival and I got to work at the Tin Can Raffle booth selling tickets. Natch, I brought along my knitting bag and decided that turning a heel on That Sock was probably a very bad idea. Better to knit on something easy to pick up and put down. So the blanket got the nod.

I managed about to add about 4 or 5 squares and honestly...the project is at that stage where it doesn't look like anything has been done to it AT ALL despite all kinds of progress. I apologize for the crummy photo. Like Saturday, where it practically PEED rain, today is grey and gloomy again. I tried taking a picture in natural light and all I got was blurry pictures. So I ended up using the flash and making it look flat.

OF course, KIPping got the usual questions, "Is that crochet or knitting?" and comments, "I don't have enough patience for that." Give me strength. Lucky thing I have patience to deal with that patience comment...otherwise more people would be walking around with knitting needles sticking out of them than there are now.

I kept looking at this thing and thinking, "When is it going to be DONE already?!" Well, never if I don't get down to it and try to seriously finish it already! When I think this was supposed to be my Olympic knitting project. Gar! And my darling, darling daughter, Laurel, had to pipe up with, "When are you going to knit me my poncho?!!?!?" I love my children, I love my children, I love my children.....

Diane asks where I got the pattern; it's a Plymouth pattern which I got from my LYS...the pattern number is P263.

Along with the work on that, I also took a bash at my second Celtic Cable sock while waiting in the car for my kids yesterday; I had forgotten to bring my book, so I had to do SOMETHING. I got a few rows in before I discovered when it was time to turn the cables that I had not put the cable needle in this particular knitting bag. I know there is a way of doing without, but I had never done it and didn't feel like figuring it out on the spot.

I admit it, I'm rather cranky this month. My business has really fallen off this month, so I've had a ton of free time, which I've occupied by trying to learn to play the piano better than I do. I had about 1 year of lesson in high school, but I do play other instruments. Our organist died last year and now that I finally have two ladies who are taking on lay reading, I've been playing organ on the days when we have morning prayer and our regular organist does not do those Sundays. I can play simple chords and the melody and I do okay. But I've had to change a few keys to accomodate my limited abilities to play keys that have lots of flats or sharps.

I'm coming along...slowly. My hands are finally starting to work together instead of being separate entities with their own agenda. Amazingly, it's a lot like knitting, playing the piano is. If you get your hands to work together instead of trying to do their own thing, you can produce something really beautiful. But unlike piano playing, you get to keep that beautiful thing around; music instead dies slowly away and you are left with a memory of it.

My other mountain that I've been climbing with this is trying to overcome my performance anxiety. I've had problems with this just forever. I used to have a problem with speaking in front of people, something that God took away when I started to read the bible in church. And it's carried over into my SU! business, for which I am grateful. But for some reason known only to Him, God has seen fit NOT to remove it for organ playing. So that I shake dreadfully at times and make tons of mistakes. Despite the fact that I've TOLD Him that I am really quite humble about my abilities as an organ player and my only desire is to be competent, He has allowed this thorn to remain in my side. I finally bought some anti-anxiety herbal supplements that did help a lot last Sunday. Maybe once I get used to playing, I won't need them anymore. And they didn't make me sleepy, which is what I really worried about! I had visions of everyone hearing a thud and looking over at me lying on the floor next to the organ, fast asleep.

Well, time to hop in the shower. A friend and I are going to IKEA for the first time...should be a blast!

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...

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!!!"

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....!

It was quiet here today. They all were in school, every blessed one of them.

I am happy!

I love my kids and my husband, I really do. But by the time the end of August rolls around, I am ready for them to get out of here for a certain amount of time five days a week. I like solitude; I crave it. I like to listen to the radio and not watch television. I like to clean something and have it stay that way, for a while, anyway. I like to be able to post to my blogs without interruption while I let the words flow out of my fingers and onto the screen.

And it's hard while they are here to do that, because they are nosy and want to know what I am writing and I *hate* people reading what I am writing over my shoulder. Our computer is smack in the hub of activity all the time, as it should be. I don't really want to be shut away with it and when my kids are old enough to be online, they are definitely going to be out in the middle of everything while they are using it.

So it was with joy and thanksgiving to God that I delivered my children to their school. After I dropped them off, I turned on the radio and listened to a wonderful praise song which sang "Hallelujah!" and thought "YES!!!"

So, now that I finally have privacy to post my little projects, here is That Sock:

That Sock has been cavorting in the pediatrician's office, where it attracted attention. Funny that people always say, "And who are you making that for?" Like I would say, "My daughter." Hah! As if!

My daughters have perfected losing socks to an art form. My precious socks are not adorning the feet of these girls, since they will not love them as they ought. My daughters walk outside in their stocking feet! They push their socks off in bed, then the socks go over the side and are never seen again unless you move the bunk beds. And these are maple...they are HEAVY. So no way, no how am I knitting these socks for them. I always say, "For me!" For who else would love my socks they way they need to be loved?

The other day I went to get my hair cut, so I stopped at Old Village Yarn which is nearby and picked up my Helen's Laces, in the shade called "River".

You may recall this is for a shawl. I paused before putting it in the stash to admire it properly and wonder just when the knitting bug was going to hit again. Probably once the weather gets colder.

Since it's down in the 70's here today, my guess is that won't be long at all. Good. I like fall. It's my favorite time of year!

Knit happens....

when you have to take your kid to the emergency room.

I have a daughter who is currently, shall we say, experiencing all the full glory of womanhood, but is not enjoying it very much.

So yesterday, when she went into hysterics about the abdominal pain she was having, was running a low-grade temp, and had had some other gastrointestinal issues that might point to a wonky appendix, yours truly had to make an ER run.

The hospital we prefer is a 30 to 40 minute drive from here, depending on traffic, so I grabbed my current mystery ("Five Bells and Bladebone" by Martha Grimes) and my little knitting bag that has what I have decided to call "That Sock" and off we went.

I have visited enough ERs to know you spend most of your time waiting for something to happen next. And knitting is necessary to wile away the time and to calm the nerves.

Of course, by the time we got up there, Missy Sahib was feeling better. If I had stayed home, she would have died, fer sure. And once we got in there she was feeling very little pain at all.

We should have turned around and gone home right then and there. But, you don't wanna take chances with your child's inner organs, so we stayed, had blood work, x-rays, the works. For nothing, because she was fine. Sigh.

I told her that every child gets one ER trip that turns out to be nothing every 5 years and that she had just used hers up for the next five years. Don't do that to me again until you are 16 or 17!

At least I got a few rows done on That Sock. It's happy. And I did get a nice comment on That Sock from one of the nurses. So That Sock not only got a few rows knit on it, it got to get complimented as well. Lucky sock.

Faint stirrings

Old Village Yarn Shop called me this past week. Remember that Lorna's Laces stuff I ordered to do that shawl? Well, it's been in for, um....quite some time. Was I coming to get it soon?

Yes, I said...I've just not gotten out to that part of the world lately, but I was planning on picking it up. Really.

In the meantime, I'm going great guns on stamping and having a lot of fun doing that, but I only get the urge to knit every now and then. Maybe I should go through my yarn bins again or maybe I should just decide to finish all the projects I have started with the idea that then I would get rid of all un-knit yarn and projects (but really trying to jump start the urge to knit again...that's what always ends up happening, anyway.)

In the meantime, I'm spending my life shuttling children to appointments, trying to fit in everything that needs to be done by August 29th, when school begins and my life can get back to normal.

I'm really tired of having a constant mess in this house...I can vacuum, but a few hours and it looks just the same. Same for the kitchen floor. With 5 people at home almost all the time, nothing stays done for more than 2 minutes unless I do it late at night before I go to bed. And then I don't really get to enjoy the cleanliness...as long as rats and roaches are not moving in and I'm keeping things sanitary if not absolutely neat, we will manage to live until school starts again.

This week we've got a dentist appointment for me plus pediatrician appointments for the kids. I have to take them to buy new shoes for school....I've already done uniforms in the very first days of the month and school supplies this past week. I really, really hate shopping for these things. Everyone is talking at once, throwing things in the cart, I'm standing there with the supply list saying, "Have we got one of these for Billy yet?" or "You only need 3 of those!" I tell them to make an inventory of what they already have so I don't have to spend money on stuff we bought last year and is still good. They all want stuff that is NEW, so I have to fight that, "NO, you don't need a new pencil case if last years still works. So what if it's a little dirty? Take a rag and clean it or throw it in the wash if it's washable!"

Uniforms were equally stressful to buy. How big should it be? How long do the skirts have to be again? Do you really need new shirts, or will last years do? Okay, if I buy these, I might as well buy 3 of them, since I will get $5 off if I do that...arghhhh!

In addition to this, my oldest child is getting braces. That was a big check to write, let me tell ya. If I hadn't carefully put aside some of our tax return, we would be making much larger payments on them than we will. We went and got the top braces this past week. And then the orthodontist says, "She needs to have two of these teeth out ASAP." Why didn't he tell me that in the spring, when I could have made an appointment in advance? Sure he said they would have to be removed, but for some stupid reason, I thought HE would do it. SO I call my kids' dentist and she's booked through October...so much for ASAP. We're on the cancellations list at the top...hopefully, she will get one this week and we can get these teeth out and be ready for the bottom braces appointment next week. If not, he is going to have to work around the fact that the teeth are still there.

So...anybody got cheese to go with this whine?

There have been *good* things going on this week. I'm trying to think of what they are...oh, yes: my kids went to vacation bible school every evening this past week. So my husband and I were able to go out for our anniversary on Tuesday evening...THAT was good. It was nice having a bit of a break from them every evening. But we're back to full time parenting this week.

And I got a lot of new stamps from the Holiday Mini to play with. So if you'll excuse me, I'll go play with them now....