This is so stupid.

Here’s what I can do with my broken hand.

1. laundry

2. dishes

3. chase a wicked fast naked toddler through walmart who can not only outrun me, but apparently, holds the world record for ability to run and strip at the same time.

4. cook

5. drive

6. pick up after all the slobs who live here.

7. teach my toddler her colors and shapes.

This is all cool w/ my dr. What is the one thing he thinks will stress my injury? Let’s all say it together KNITTING! Apparently, somewhere in his childhood his granny knit him some very scratchy woolen underwear and his mother made him wear them. Now, he has a prejudice against all things pertaining to wool. I could tell by the sadistic gleam in his eye when he told me I could not knit.

Mike is ready to beg this man to reconsider, I think there may even be a bribe involved. If you knew how cheap my husband is, you would realize how desperate he is. We once went to the casino to celebrate a relative’s birthday, he took one dollar with him. he played on that dollar for 2 hours, and when it was gone, he was done. 

Me the non-knitter, is not a very nice person, neither am I terribly rational. I have taken to snapping at random strangers who irritate me. I also have made a pet out of my favorite ball of lovely dusty rose-colored metallic mohair blend. As soon as I am able, it is destined to become a lovely wrap sweater. mike, for some crazy reason objected to me taking it to the beach. I reminded him that I have been in love with this ball of yarn for 10 years. Whereas, he’s been hanging around on my sofa for a mere 6 years. For some inexplicable reason, this was not the perspective gaining argument for him that I thought it would be. He started to yammer on something about wedding vows and how he was sure that they did not include his wife carrying around yarn. That was the point I tuned him out.  More yarn hatred. I covered my beloved’s ears so that he didn’t have to hear such vitriol.

I also wound my lovely debbie bliss silk. I am searching for a pattern for a lovely one skein accessory, possibly a cowl, but I’m not sure since i really hate things around my neck.  Any suggestions are welcomed.

This weekend is going to be pure torture, because the florida fiber in is this weekend. I would skip it, but it is the only fiber event that I am aware of in FL, so I don’t want to miss out. I’ll try to take pictures of yummy yarn since I won’t be able to join in any of the events. I don’t know, I might give it a small try. If I behave myself the rest of the week, maybe it’ll be okay. I mean, it’s been two weeks. shouldn’t one time fracture between the first and second finger have healed mostly by then? I mean, they didn’t even cast it, it wasn’t bad enough. It only hurts when i twist my wrist. There has to be a way.

Also, when I suggested (perhaps a little forcefully) that the only way I would quit knitting would be if I had my hands hacked off, the dr looked at me  as if I were the crazy one, and blathered on about something, I don’t remember, I was too busy googling his credentials which I am CERTAIN came out of a cracker jack box.

A quick poll. My uber-talented sister is beginning to make handmade soap and she was wondering what your favorite scent is when buying soap. Pair this with how easily she caught onto knitting, the fact that she has two-hour labors and is ten lbs thinner than me and i could really hate her. SEE, I’m a meaner w/o yarn.

You guys are not going to believe this

I’m not sure I believe me and I was there. Remember, my cute little joke about ending up in traction? Hahaha, I crack me up. Guess who tripped over her own two feet in the driveway and fractured her left hand? Yeah, that would be me. So. it seems I will be taking a short break from the challenge, sigh. Only I would have a excuse to sit around and knit for 6 weeks, and break a hand. What in the world am i supposed to do for 6 weeks? Did I mention that I’m left-handed?  Guess I’ll have lots of time to see what you lovelies are doing.

They’re gunning for me

Remember those knitting fairies from last week? Yes well, after lulling me into a false sense of security by allowing  me to finish the silk cami, w/o much trouble, they teamed up with the fairies of painful and painfully expensive dental work and laid me out flat for the week. I told you guys I heard snickering. I am now on a serious yarn diet, it appears that along with my children, sometimes my husband, and my sister’s maraschino cheesecake truffles, having teeth in my mouth is among the few things I treasure more than yarn, who knew?

This is going to seriously impact my list, as I have to use stash yarn and most of what I have left is not very good quality acrylic in ridiculous colors

that I picked out when i was a teen first learning. ApparentlyI was either incredibly tacky at 15 or I was color-blind. I mean, homeless pigeons would not crap on this stuff.

I was able to go to the zoo with my family yesterday. We had planned for this trip since Livy was born and so I was very excited to be able to take her to see all the animals. It was amazing! If you are in Florida or are planning a trip there, please take time to visit the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. It is worth every single penny.

In addition to this gorgeous Florida panther, (of which there are fewer than 30 in the wild) they have many fiber animals, there were llamas, camels and goats. I wanted to volunteer to groom them just to collect the fiber. I was very tempted to shear those “poor, sweltering” walking sweaters animals, but I decided not to get thrown out on my first visit. Because I showed so much restraint, my husband bought me my first llama, that Olivia immediately commandeered. She’s got her very own drama llama, now.

 

I am also taking the time to make my costume for the not so scary mickey party which we are already committed to, thank goodness, because I would have been very sad to have to give that up.  I’m going as my alter-ego “The Evil Queen of the Universe.” The story behind that title is that my nephew went to pre-k with my picture when he was 4 and during show and tell stood up and announced “This is my Aunt Mist, she looks really nice, but she’s actually an EVIL SUPER GENIUS.” I swear, you make a kid clean his room once, and it’ll haunt you for life.

Since I don’t sew, it makes sense for me to choose the most complicated pattern I could find right?  I mean the evil queen of the universe has her standards.  I leave you a picture of me and the cutest of my knitting obstacles in hopes of appeasing the fairies before I’m zapped by the fairies of ending up in traction. …

T minus 8 and counting

This is it, I’ve made it through. I haven’t exploded, no one has been arrested, gone to the emergency room, or the insane asylum. Heck. no one has even gone to the bar. Tomorrow is that beautiful halcyon day called THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!! Tomorrow, unless the boys’ hurricane dance pays off, they will trudge off to the salt mines and Shel and I will have one child apiece!!  Oh. the possibilities.

 

On the knitting front, I have finished the back and have 2 inches left to knit on my silk cami. Also, the windmill bag has a mere 100 rows left to go. I should be able to get both of these off the needles by the end of the month. The knitting fairies are snickering, I can tell. I do have a major decision to make about the silk cami. It calls for straps made out of these really elegant seed pearls. But, I’m not really a pearl kind of girl. I’m more of a fun beaded strap kind of girl. I’ve got to decide whether or not to leave it as is, or personalize it a little.

 

I’m hoping that since (say it again) school starts tomorrow, I will have a little more time to focus on knitting and also doing a better job of reading everyone’s blogs. That somehow got away from me last week. If I missed you last week, this week I solemnly swear to do better. I’m going to try to make this week all about catching up. At least, I haven’t started another new, non-YOP project, right?

I think I’ve angered the knitting fairies

 

Thursday was not a good day knitting wise. It all started when my charming husband rushed me out of bed and out the door w/o makeup or knitting bag. In my little world that is a hanging offense. I am the product of a long line of cosmetologists married to a guy who has literally had the same haircut since birth. He’s never going to get it. Fortunately, he takes out the garbage w/o being told and cheerfully will occupy our 2 year old  on all yarn shopping trips.

So,I had to drop him at work and it happens that my sister lives in that direction.  i had planned a knitting night at her house and here I was w/o anything to work on. This is not good. At my sister’s house there are 4 lovely boys that will allow Livy to boss htem around to her heart’s content. This is awesome knitting time. 8 hours of it, wasted. I began knitting a voodoo doll out of the scratchiest acrylic I could find in the girliest pink I could find. Tonight I’m going to pluck his chest hair out, one by one.

Perhaps it was the bad karma I courted while plotting mind control of my biggest knitting obstacle that led to the next problem. I had to go get SOMETHING to knit, right? I bought two skeins of yarn on sale at Joanns, and I cast on three different projects and hated them by the third row. Meanwhile, my sister has become obsessed with knitting rag rugs. She went through 7 bags of clothing to find the right colors, at one time demanding the shirt off of her son’s back because it matched her color scheme in her bathroom better than the one she had.  They are used to our crazy, it’s okay.

Her rag rug was gorgeous, all turquoise and sand with some navy and white thrown into to balance it nicely. Mine was hideous, there are no pictures. I would whine about how she took all the good stuff, but since her money paid for the clothing, I won’t. In the midst of all this, I decided to do some work with my spindle and show Shel how to spin when the yarn I was (over) spinning broke and the spindle fell to the floor and shattered. I decided to call it a night.

I have made some progress on my silk cami, however. The back is done and I have cast on the front.  the windmill bag is also coming along nicely. Hopefully, one or both of these will be off the needles by the end of the month. I really want to start reworking my tunic in Sept. I’ll need that around November and I want to give myself plenty of time to finish it. I also want to finish the fiji wrap. In October, I’ll start my Christmas knitting. That is the current plan, subject to change w/o notice, void where prohibited.

I’m late, I’m late for a very important date.

Sorry guys, My weekend was a little bit crazy, my husband is getting a little bit jealous of the time I spend knitting. I’m not sure how to feel about that. The only thing that I can think of as a reason for him to feel this way is that he has been working insane amounts of overtime for the past few weeks. This is completely out of character for him.

As a result, I have spent most of my weekend trying to appease his need for family time. I did finish the third repeat of the Fiji lace wrap. I think I am going to shorten it considerably. the pattern called for 11 repeats but it is a 28 row pattern and I am only 5’3″. I think 7 repeats will more than meet my needs w/o making me feel like a mummy.

Also. in the miracle corner, my mom has actually asked me to make her a scarf. My mom has few flaws, but one of them has been an unnatural prejudice against knitting. I think it dates back to my great-grandmother and her love of mixing orange, brown, yellow, and purple into concoctions that would make your eyes bleed. So now, I am adding the shibori scarf to my list. It’s my first beaded project. Any advice is much valued. Remember when i said I was going to be selfish with my knitting this year? Apparently, I’m not as good as that as I thought. Except with strawberries and chocolate. Hope everyone has had a more productive week than me.

July’s over? Seriously?

This month flew by, it seems but I did get one FO, so I’m still sort of on track. I currently have on the needles, the windmill bag, coachella, my fiji lace wrap and cast on my silk and pearls cami. There has been no real progress on anything this week.

Tuesday was my birthday and my family totally spoiled me. My husband bought me the beatles box set. I am a huge beatles fan. I was excited. Then he took my 2 year old to the store so that I could shower and get ready for my day in peace. Most mothers will tell you that this is present enough to be able to take a shower w/o a small imp standing outside the shower door yelling “momomomomomomomomom” the whole time. Incidentally, I’ve discovered livy can do this 56 times before having to take a breath. Isn’t that lovely?

Then my mom watched all five of the kids so that my sister and I could have a shopping day. She’s a champ. My sister’s 4 boys are good, but lively. we went to my favorite yarn shop. I bought rescued three lovely laceweights. one was a silk/linen mix I am thinking to use for a dress.  The yardage was 750. I also bought 475 yards of a lovely denim alpaca. That one still hasn’t decided what it wants to be when it grows up. Finally. I got 125 yards of a lovely plum colored 100% silk. I think I see a cowl in its future. My husband sees thongs. we shall see who prevails.

I’ve been rethinking my list. I have two pieces on my list that I really want to knit, but, would never probably wear. I love the evening gala aran. It is a fabulous sweater. However, it makes the  dress makers’s model look thick in the middle. Also, I have seen it IRL, and it flatters no one. The point of my list was to finally have  knitted garments that I loved and flattered me. 

The 2nd one is the cowichan wrap coat. It is very boxy on. I look terrible in that shape, I might be able to change the shaping of the shoulders, but, for now, it’s off my list.

Does anyone else ever cast on a bigger size than you need, just in case? I drive myself crazy because I want a very tailored fit, but then I intentionally add 2″ just so i don’t have to reknit it. If you were knitting a cami and you were right between the sizes would you knit the smaller size or the larger?

 

sockily challenged

I stink at making socks. I don’t know if it’s just because I am not a sock person, I live in the land of Mickey mouse and flip-flops for a reason. My attempts at socks have all been dismal failures. They could fit fred flintstone’s feet. To be honest, I would give it up if it weren’t for that dratted yarn harlot who routinely turns out footwear than makes me green with envy. Sometimes, I’m tempted to pay that squirrel to frustrate her like the socks frustrate me, but that will not help my sock karma.  Hopefully, what will is that sock class i’m signing up for next month.

Is there any particular project you have that you just cannot get, no matter how many times you try?

a letter to my daughter

Livy Love,

Today, it hit me anew how big you are getting. It hits me every time you do something new. This morning when you woke up and said “good morning mommy, where’s daddy?” I remembered the tiny little peanut that used to fit snuggly in the crook of my elbow. The baby i didn’t put down for the first three months. Now, you are so busy that I cherish the few seconds you spend in my lap each day.

You are the single most amazing thing that ever happened to me, and I love you very much. You crack me up and drive me crazy every single day. I love/hate the evidence of you growing up right before my eyes. Today, when mommy wouldn’t let you have a popsicle for breakfast, You said “I telling you what Mommy, you’re making me mad!” and stomped off  to put yourself in timeout, I tried not to laugh at you because I could tell you were very serious.

I want you to know that your mommy and daddy love you more than anything else in the world. i never expected when i was dreaming about what kind of person you would be that you would be so smart, funny, kind, independent and beautiful. I could never have hoped for all those things in one tiny little 6 lb bundle.  In short, baby girl, we are extremely blessed to have you, and we are so grateful that God chose you to be ours

a little note

 finally was able to find all the links for my YOP list if you want to check them out they are on my “updated list” post.