Here is where I get out most of my sock books to figure out what I want to do about the heels.

It’s no secret that I tend to choke when I get to the heels of a knitted sock.  I tend to prefer toe-up, so I get the toe and foot done, panic at the thought of turning a heel, and then start another sock.  I have 5 socks (two and one-half pairs) ready for the heels.  If I hadn’t recently frogged a pair or two, (okay, three), I would have a lot more.  Honestly, I have frogged more pairs of socks than I have finished.  I have finished socks before, four pairs if memory serves, so I know I can not only finish socks, I can turn a heel.  This recent sock knitting phase finds me DETERMINED to overcome my fear of heels.  I knit several socks to the heel point so that I could turn several heels, one right after the other, in an attempt to solidify in my mind that I am not only capable of, but comfortable with, knitting the heels of socks.

I spent many agonizing moments, days, weeks, trying to decide which type of heel I wanted to do.  I definitely didn’t want a heel flap, I detest picking up stitches.  Maybe as I become a more confident knitter I will feel differently, but this year isn’t it. I tried a heel that called for a gusset but that wasn’t really doing it for me either, so I decided on a short row heel.

How many freaking ways to do a short row heel does there need to be?

Also, I still haven’t worked on my mother’s shawl.

Filed under: Knitting

I wrote previously about the safe haven I created for myself 5 years ago.  I moved here in early April of 2008.  On April 28th of this year I passed another anniversary, the one that I like to call my own personal Independence Day. I freed myself from an untenable position and launched myself into a situation where my time, space, money and decisions were all my own. It was incredible.

Since then,  many things have happened.  Some have been horrific, but most of them, 90-ish percent of them, have been incredible and wonderful and I have been so grateful to have these good experiences to help me get through the bad ones. I share that time, space, money, and decision making.  But now, it’s with someone who is worthy of that trust.

A little spring bug hit us and what started out as a little panty reorganization turned into a several day project that included sanding and repainting the pantry shelves. I love it that hubby is open to this kind of thing. It was kinda fun, we sanded the shelves down through at least 3 layers of paint  and now have freshly painted shelves. Everything didn’t go back in as nicely as I wanted it to, my organization efforts got scrambled when we had to move stuff out of the way, but I can fix that another day. I’ve done a little Ebay shopping and procured a couple more Tupperware items to match what I already had, and when I can bring myself to rearrange the pantry items again it should look pretty spiffy.

Sanding was messy.

Hey, it looks like my pantry exploded all over my living room. Most of it is back in the pantry now, but there isn’t a set spot for anything.

Another little spring bug is happening in the form of crocheting for another family baby that should make an appearance in the winter.  I’m excited to be making another little blanket. I’ve been watching the Harry Potter movies to keep me in my spot and working so that I can get this done quickly so I can get to work on some other projects.  I really, REALLY need to start on my mom’s shawl.  I’m thinking of changing patterns yet again.  I just don’t see how I can wrap my head around that Virginia pattern.  It’s so beautiful, but the pattern is several charts scattered over several pages and even with Knit Companion I just don’t see how I can accomplish this without a lot of focus and dedication.  Two things I just don’t have right now.

Aren’t the colors cute?

Filed under: Crocheting, Just Stuff

It’s raining and dreary looking outside and I kinda like it. I’ve always enjoyed the sound the cars make on 800 N when the road is wet.  It sounds cozy, somehow. I can hear outside that the world is wet and probably a little on the cold side and I’m in the warm, safe cocoon of my little house.  I love my little house.  It’s small, it doesn’t have the yard I want and it has an HOA but it’s nicely finished on the inside. It has things that I didn’t have before like air conditioning and a dishwasher. There is a tree outside that is covered with flowers in the spring. The walls are all nicely painted, and it has nice trim around the doors and windows, and the main floor has a nice shade of bead board. It’s much too cluttered, and full of other people’s stuff, but I know that is only a short chapter of the book that is my life in this house.

The book began with me moving out of a bad situation and into a better one. I was looking for a safe haven and I didn’t care what it looked like and was willing to accept anything as long as it wasn’t where I was previously. So many things happened right when I needed them to happen and I ended up not just in an okay place, but in the Perfect Place. It turned out to be something really cute, and exactly what I had always wanted my previous house to look like. The neighborhood turned out to be a place where I fit in like I never fit in at the old place. I am close to my best friend who was my lifeline during that time. I miss certain things about the old house, but I knew I couldn’t manage similar things in my new life. For example, I wasn’t going to be able to take care of a yard and here I don’t have to. While I was able to keep my dog and three cats, I wasn’t going to be able to take care of the geese, a sheep, and a hive of bees. The HOA wouldn’t allow those things anyway.

The book has continued on with ups and downs and blessedly so many more ups than downs. There are a very few things that I miss, but I kept and gained so many more things that I needed and wanted. I had started to say ‘as luck would have it’ but I know it isn’t luck. It was Divinely guided by a loving Heavenly Father that has always looked out for me and taken care of me. He has always placed people around me to help take care of me and has always placed me in positions where I could take care of myself. I acknowledge this without reservation.

I acknowledge these things, because changes are coming to my life again and I’m trying not to be afraid by reminding myself that I have always been supported and cared for by visible and invisible means.

My little house is just one small example of this. My warm, safe cocoon where I can listen to the rain.

Filed under: Just Stuff

Dear Sally,

I know none of us will miss you as much as our Daddy misses, but I want you know I thought you were a fantastic little sister.  Thank you for being such a great companion to Daddy for ten wonderful years.

See you on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge. Say hello to Betsey, Ditch, and Jessica for me.

Filed under: Just Stuff

My friend, Kit, sent me a link to What’s New section of the The Loopy Ewe website. They had received a shipment of the ever coveted, but hard to get Wollemeise yarn. I wasn’t really interested in buying any, but I went to the site to ogle all the pretty colors and to check out what other yarny goodness might be for sale. My content filter shut me down while I was only on page three of the What’s New section.  I was just getting into drooling over a lime green messenger bag from Namaste.

For wool’s sake, what in the hell could be possibly be shutting me down on a yarn website? I mean, yeah, we knitters refer to some of the products as yarn porn, and my favorite blogger calls herself a Yarn Harlot, but I’m pretty sure those words did not exist on this site. I enlisted the aid of DH to track down what was wrong and was greeted with the following:

Member, as in yarn club member, seriously?  And dudes, fingering is a weight of yarn!

Filed under: Knitting

The Ravelry forums are full of stories about knitters getting asked to knit for people that aren’t generally knit worthy and I certainly have a few of my own. I don’t often get asked to knit things for people. Given my past experiences, I don’t know whether I should be grateful for that or slightly offended. For the future rare occasions when I am asked, I think my standard counter offer should be that if someone wants me to knit something for them,  they have to come clean my house. I will knit on their chosen object while they are cleaning. I’m a slow knitter so it might take many cleaning sessions to get their object finished.

One the needles today is a granny square baby blanket as my large extended family is due for another little to arrive in December.  Babies are always knit/crochet worthy.

I’ve also decided to get a pair of socks on the needles on my desk so I can pick them up and work on them whenever I get a spare minute. Having them sitting right here means I don’t have to use up time digging through my WIP basket looking for something to spend a few minutes on.

Filed under: Just Stuff, Knitting

I, without even the slightest twinge of guilt, completely frogged a pair of socks that I managed to knit past the heel. I was learning how to cable and not doing a good job of keeping the cables consistent in size. It was driving me crazy and I knew I wouldn’t like them once finished. I refused to give them another minute of my time and energy and gleefully frogged those suckers and reclaimed the yarn and needles.    I feel SO MUCH better.

The chair in the picture is my new ride.  A lovely, comfy, hi-backed baby that I bought as a little gift to myself in honor of my new job.

The yarn on the right was, in a former life, a half-completed pair of socks I started for HPKCHC. I planned to make a plain pair of socks and got  talked into putting a cable on them to add a bit of a challenge to the project.  The thing is, socks are already a challenge for me.  I didn’t mind the idea of a basic cable but I kept crossing the cables either too early or too late and I could tell the difference as the sock grew bigger. My OCD was not happy. I finally stopped working on them and tossed them into my WIP basket.  We would glare at each other, from time to time, the socks and I. The socks, daring me to pick them up and carry on as if nothing had happened and me refusing to get sucked into that vortex of frustration and unmet expectations.

On the left, you can see one frogged and one about to be frogged sock.  I unravelled it as soon as I took the picture. The pattern is a great one, but my attention span and sock curse conspired to distract me and I lost my place. I just couldn’t get back into the groove with these guys and knew we really needed to break up. Into the Bag of Lost Socks they went.

I will attempt the Hermoine pattern again, and use the Time Traveler yarn to make a plain pair of socks like I wanted. Maybe I’ll start them now, maybe I’ll work on the other socks that aren’t sitting next to the frog pond or maybe I’ll work on my Mom’s shawl.  That’s life on the edge. I never know what I’ll do next.

Maybe, I’ll just keep spinning this Holy Crap, That’s Lime roving that I dyed using Neon food coloring.

Filed under: Knitting

Am I ready to take on Monday?

Why yes, I do believe I am.

Keaton has other ideas.

This has the potential of becoming something I like. The yarn is Knit Picks fingering weight in Bare that I dyed with Kool Aid.  The colors look fantastic on the ball of yarn but I’m not enamored yet with how it looks on a small swatch.  It started to look better when I started the cuff of a fingerless mitt with it. I have hopes that I will like the result.  The knitting group named the color “Pile of M&Ms”.

Filed under: Just Stuff, Knitting

That means “nothing on the needles”.  I say nothing on the needles like someone with a closet crammed full of clothes says they have nothing to wear. When I say I have nothing to knit, I mean there is nothing currently in my stash or queue that I want to knit. I’ve hit a knitting slump. I could work on Mom’s shawl, but I’m paralyzed by my current inability to do the pattern she wants and fear that she won’t like the other pattern I picked.  The yarn is beautiful. The patterns are beautiful. And yet, I’m frozen. I could work on the replica of Joshua’s baby blanket but there are some sad memories there. I could start my Lanesplitter skirt but then I’ll feel guilty for not working on Mom’s shawl. I’ve planned to do a large batch of fingerless mitts but seem unable to pick and stick with a pattern. Bleh.

Thank goodness I have World of Warcraft or I’d get nothing done!

I may have to resort to baking.  Or Heaven forbid, cleaning.

Filed under: Just Stuff

Cute.

Funny.

Handsome.

Happy Sweet 16 dear son. This is the first year that I’ve been without you on your birthday and I have to say that I really don’t care for it one bit. I’m so sorry that we had to go through all the stuff last year that caused us to be so far apart and to have awkward and strained holidays due to the selfish actions of another. I continue work hard and pray to have hope that things will get better.  I love you and I’m proud to be your mother.

Filed under: Just Stuff