Monday, June 29, 2009

The Sock Queue

I always have this mental queue (as well as my supersized Rav queue) of what is up next. Normally there is a sock queue, a bigger project (sweater or that sort of thing) and a lace queue.

I have nearly finished the second of these. In fact I think tomorrow morning will see me weaving in some ends.

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I thought you might be interested in seeing what is "up next" in my sock queue. I haven't picked a pattern yet, because I will need something that you can knit with a busy yarn. The first time I knit a blank, I didn't like it because the yarn is wormy from being dyed while knit and unwound, but luckily, once washed the yarn is normal, so I'm going to do the old "leap of faith" thing and knit up this bad boy.

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This weekend we are having family visiting, but NEXT WEEK!!! There will be no kids here Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday!! Don't get me wrong, I love these guys, but I am looking forward to a break from having hooligans hanging from the rafters next week. I'm already making a list of stuff I'll do. Recaulking our bathroom shower is number one.

Oh yes, I am a party animal.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

It's Weirder Than it Sounds

I love reading blogs and I read A LOT of them, but I don't comment that much. There are lots of reasons for this, but it's not because i don't read them. It's just that sometimes I don't have anything worth saying that hasn't already been said. That's not a reflection on the blog content, but more a reflection on me I think, but anywho . . . Sometimes on a blog, you read sad stuff. I have actually wanted to send a little something to a blogger (just a pick-me-up or what have you) to cheer them, or maybe to congratulate them on something, but I never do it.

The reasons for that are even weirder than you can imagine. But whatever. .

I just wonder if people get attached to bloggers who don't even know them, because i sort of do. I don't lie awake wondering where they live or anything, but I wouldn't like anything bad to happen to them, and if it does, I feel bad. Weird, huh?

My son has a friend over every Tuesday. His friend's name is Tim, so we like to call those days, TimmyTuesdays. It's lame, but that's how I roll. Anywho, we picked up said Timmy last week and were driving home discussing the best weapon to have in a zombie infestation and whatnot (frankly I feel that the crowbar and machete should not be counted out so easily - you can't run out of ammo) and we drove past this guy.

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And I swear I am NOT making fun of him because this guy rocked. I was really afraid you couldn't see it in the photo. We had to turn around to drive past again to take it. His beard is so long, it is actually fluttering and bouncing over his shoulders as he runs. It's like seeing one of those garden gnomes running down the street.

Pretty cool - Ima try and blow it up for you.

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So that's what Santa's doin' in June right?

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Quandary

What do you do when someone continually treats you as if your time is less important than theirs?

Usually, I would go to the person and try to tell them that I feel that I went the extra mile when necessary and now expect the PROMISED reciprocation. And here's the rub: The person is not mature enough to handle it. Wait I have to go back in time.

Awhile ago, he/she was confronted by a good (read: only) friend regarding some behavior that was deemed questionable if not outright inappropriate. I believe that the friend came to him/her directly because it was the mature thing to do, and I heard an earful behind "the friend's" back and the relationship was severed as far as I know.

Is this emotional blackmail? If I can't tell someone outright that in my opinion their behavior is inappropriate without thinking "well that's the last time he/she will ever talk to me" isn't emotional blackmail exactly what it is?

I have a laundry list of gripes really and can't air them because the maturity level is just not there.

So what do you do? Do you do what you would normally do and let them deal with their own reactions? Normally I would try to say "hey it's not cool for you to plan a whole day for me." or "hey what about how you said that after I did my part to help you out, then you would do this for me?" And then if he/she can't handle it, then so be it?

Vent over

Meanwhile, I am furiously carding this (which looks disturbingly like Morticia Addams hair) Jacob fleece so I can work on blending my stuff for the Tour de Fleece.

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Imagine trying to eat your dinner with THAT pile of fluff leaning over behind you at the dining table. It's a lamb fleece and it's heavenly. I'm trying to blend it until it's fairly even by splitting the batts repeatedly and blending with eachother. That makes no sense, but whatever I'm crabby, I'm dieting, and I have PMS and it's really hot, so Pffffffffffffft.

I keep picturing myself whirling in a circle on one leg until I fly apart into pieces like in a fairy tale. Isn't that cool? That's how crabby I am!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Just a bunch of unrelated stuff to catch up

1. It is hot. Like "face of the sun" hot around here and I am a fat person. I get crabby.

2. I finished my first sock for Summer of Socks '09. I don't love them, but hey they aren't for me. I can knit skulls in my sleep now, which isn't a talent I was going for, but honestly who am I to turn one away?

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3. Zarzuela Is doing a mini-interview tonight with me via speaker phone about the Summer of Socks '09 group. It will be in Next week's episode of The High Fiber Diet. Kind of cool. I've never done a phone one before.

4. Yesterday, Diana from my knitting group happened to drive by with her beeyouuuuutiful daughters as I was hopping down from the truck. her elder daughter brushed off my zipper fear (CPH) with "zippers are easy" and I sat down and sewed that nasty bitch in. I rock.

Now I can weave in the last few ends and give it to my mom. She put it on back in Feb and hinted that she wanted it, so i decided to give it to her for Mothers' Day. The kicker is she not only could not remember wanting it, but could not actually remember its existence.

The color is wrong, but honestly all that matters is that little brass glint of an actual working zipper ya know.
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5. I am spinning up 4 ounces of the most purtiest fiber I have ever had. It's Merino/bamboo from Yarnhollow and I'm going to ply it into a 2 play laceweight when I'm done, but hey laceweight goes SLOWLYYYYYYYYYYY. It had pink, it was shiny, and I had to have it.

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Last for today:

6. I am also signed up for the Tour de Fleece on Team Crankypants. I am pmsing, plus it is hotter than the Devil's sweaty you know whats around here so it seemed fitting. Plus, one of my favorite bloggers ever posted it on her blog and since I am no longer addicted to Lace Knitalongs I figured "why not?"

I had about 10 ounces of really pretty Jacob lamb from the West Michigan Fibre Festival (last year) and decided that I'll be blending it with some red Shetland (that is like blah city) because the two together seem to be nice and springy, heathery and will make me a nice sweater. So that's my goal for the Tour de Fleece. Now I just need a Team Crankypants Ravatar.

Monday, June 22, 2009

We Had a Storm

All photos taken within a block from my house, and only a very small sampling of the really terrible damage here. We were without power for less than 24 hours thanks to the awesomeness that is the Holland Board of Public Works. A funny thing happens when the neighborhood has no power. Everybody comes out! We pretended we were camping in a super fantastic trailer (because our house is fairly average, but compared to a lot of campers, it rocks). We had hot water, our grill and gas stove and the freezer stayed frozen, so what is there to bitch about?

I've never seen a storm this bad before. Some neighbors of ours have literally lost their homes, and when I say neighbors, there are two houses between us and them.

It's heartbreaking, but we are so thankful no one was hurt (that we know of). One of our rentals had water in the basement (first time ever). We went over and pulled out the carpet pad and put the carpet on 2x4s to dry out with fans, humidifier and a prayer. The good news is that there was no visible mold under the carpet from before this happened, so if we can get that carpet dried out, there is a good chance we are straight.

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Why yes, those are my pink, fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror. I am nothing if not a dork.

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And my 11 year old miracle's favorite.
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I have other stuff to talk about and have to apologize for the silence. Summer vacay adjustments and the like are keeping me kinda busy.

I'm already sick of sweating.

I made myself a note about all the stuff I want to blog about tomorrow!

Friday, June 5, 2009

Oh My, Indeed

So you can see my problem with the birdbath. Ironically, the water comes out of a hose in the middle of the bowl, not from where you would think.

This morning my wee boy is graduating elementary school. At the risk of being a cliche, Where on earth did the time go anyway? I'll have pics to share later I hope.

The Chief's sweater was dry last night and when he tried it on, we both got a very happy surprise.

It fits! And he totally should have been a JCPenney model circa 1976. We always laugh about those poses with the five men in various stages of undress from bathrobe and slippers to nothing but a pair of 70's jockeys standing around chuckling and holding coffee cups. Don't you agree he missed his calling?

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Doesn't his hand look Tim Burton GINORMOUS? Like circus huge? I love that. May I also remind you that I got that sweater as a stinky, dirty, right off the sheep fleece and turned it into that? I am ridiculously proud of that. I guess you can't tell.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Treading Water

Well I am still feeling a bit under the weather, but whatever. I take it John is pretty much tired of me being sick.

I'm still spinning on the alpaca/shetland blend.

Still working on the faux Russian stole

No photos because there is really not much new to photograph, so . . .

When we moved into this house, there was a birdbath/fountainey thing in the back yard already. It is disturbing. I have considered selling it or giving it away, but I'm afraid someone creepy will take it and that's even worse. Can you spot what makes this thing super creepy?

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So what do I do? We very seldom fill it with water and turn on the pump because the sound of running water makes me have to pee immediately. Should we just break it into bits? Creepy thing.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

How Codeine Saved the World (Mine at Least)

Two thing really saved me. I stopped using so much Proventil. I hadn't thought about the albuterol making me jittery, but luckily Carrie reminded me(who incidentally I really only know from her blog, but she always responds to comments and seems cool despite the threat of sending Cookie after me), AND a dose of codeine laced cough syrup leftover from the Chief's last bronchitis before bed.

I slept actually fairly well and woke up feeling like a human. I don't feel all better, and I sound like Bea Arthur's smoker grandmother, but it's actually an improvement.

Even better: I knitted today! (in addition to a few things I've been neglecting like posting orders)

Finally here is a photo of the Faux Russian Stole. I've never knit garter lace before. I like it a lot. It doesn't roll up as much. It's shown on my very high tech lace chart holder. Yep it's a crappy old cookie sheet with magnets. I use a tiny rare earth magnet to keep track of the edge row I'm on, and a strip for the wide center part. Oh yeah, I am a classy bitch.
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I also sewed up the armpits on the hub's sweater and a few of the ends. It is soaking for it's final block right now. I tell you if he doesn't wear it, I am stealing it. It's sort of a fakeout of Cobblestone and I spun this yarn myself, spinned? whatever. And it's really nice BFL from Beechtree Farms here in Michigan. Excuse slightly over exposed pics.
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Actually it looks a lot better on him than it does just lying limp, but whatever.

I was trying to get a tweed. I think it's not bad. It's really soft, so I guess that's even better.
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Did I show you the Xbox yarn i dyed a few weeks ago? I just noticed it matches the game boxes.
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I have now. Time for a nap. I'm not all the way better, but I do have to say that the threat of sending me Cookie didn't scare me. I suspect she is a buttload of fun, although laughing a lot is not good right now.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Drowning or Why I am a Hot, Snotty Mess

I started to feel a wee bit of the fuzz in the chest on Saturday, by Sunday I was sporting a low grade fever and very lethargic. Yesterday no fever but painful chest pressure, today I have a higher fever.

let me tell you I have NO qualms about taking tons of OTC drugs during a cold or flu. (I think this qualifies as flu but I am never quite clear on the differences) Anywho, I have barely touched yarn. That's how sick I feel. You can't understand how sick I have to be to lie in bed and not feel good enough TO KNIT. I am drowning in chest congestion people! Get this elephant off my chest! Oh never mind, those are just boobs.

On Saturday, I wasn't feeling as bad, so I did start spinning the lovely Shetland/Suri Alpaca blend for sock yarn. It is spinning up just beautifully, but I didn't take a picture. Here's a picture of the blended batts. It is very uninspiring, but the yarn is going to knock your socks off. Bad pun alert.

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If you feel the need to see the spinning, just picture it in your head. Srsly how many photos of singles on a bobbin do you need to see before you can figure it out? Cut me some slack here. I'm sick.

I did finish the knitting on hubby's sweater on Sunday (or something) but I haven't sewed up the armpit holes or blocked it yet. As soon as I feel better i will get on that.

I haven't cast on yet for the second viking sock. That cable pattern has just looked too hard for my fevered brain to handle.

I have knit a wee bit on the Faux Russian stole, but I'm not even done with the first repeat. How the hell does Cookie do it?

Yes, I am aware that I should consider the doctor. However, I am apparently phobic since my sister got the (whispered) cancer. I am young (sort of) and strong (like bull) and I will kick it. Plus I have been huffing proventil and taking other fun stuff like it's going out of style. I should be so decongested that my blood has turned to powder, but ALAS.

See ya'll when i feel better.