Xtra pictures of the SOMA cube

Well, you did guess that starting a post title with X was going to be tricky, didn’t you? I can’t believe I got this far and nobody commented on it. Almost all the ways through my ABCs, and it’s only mid-July. That degree in English Literature is sure coming in handy!

I got the game pieces assembled, but I need to do a lot of sanding before I can call them done. Right now they’re more like portable splinter dispensers.

The seven SOMA pieces

Now, let’s make a cube.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

You can also place the last piece differently and make this pretty configuration.

The Crystal

And here are all four cubes, assembled. Sanding is next.

Four cubes

Whew! I don’t know when I’ll get to do the sanding. We have seen a couple of yucky bugs and it’s time to give serious attention to de-cluttering the house so we can have it sprayed.

Knitwise I haven’t done anything with the lace scarf in a few days. I guess I got tired of being so good at un-knitting it. But I have added two stripes to the current Doctor Who Scarf, and Fringed the second Pinstripe TenScarf on the 11th.

Next to get attention: Casting on for the second Noro sock, or attacking Tyrone. Maybe with scissors.

Vultures!

I’m getting really tired of this. Poor Farrah Fawcett, can we let her rest in peace?

Quite some time ago I wrote a post that included a head shot of Ms. Fawcett with that famous hair, which all of us “of a certain age” were trying to re-create on our own heads many years ago.

The post has taken on a life of its own, and most of the people who find my blog via search terms have been using phrases like “Farrah Fawcett” but most often “fara faucet” or some even more misspelled variation. Every time poor Farrah’s cancer flared up in the last two years, I’d get a spike of hits. (That post is responsible for 10 percent of the total hits on my blog. I Am Not Making This Up.)

So. I was away around the time of my birthday, and didn’t have access to wifi. When I got back I noticed this tremendous spike of views on and just before my birthday. In fact, June 25 set a new one-day record, topping the day I wrote about the Blue Moon Fiber Arts sock club debacle. Wow, I thought, did people really come by to say Happy Birthday in those kind of numbers?

Nope. Farrah Fawcett died of cancer and my blog must have hopped to the top of the search-engine list.

Sorry folks, nothing to see here. Just one thumbnail headshot of Farrah from the 1970s, a few chocolate bars, and a lot of procrastinated knitting. You vultures can move along.

But you yarnies can stay! I’m making a lace scarf, and finishing socks, and all kinds of exciting things.

Here’s the first clown Noro sock. I haven’t cast on for the second one yet.

Currently I’m working on the lace scarf (the pattern is called “Moon River” but my project is named “Fire River” because of the yarn colorway) and fixing Tyrone and wishing Tyrone were already fixed. I did finish a second Pinstripe TenScarf, but haven’t added any fringe yet. (And holy moley, I got a Rav PM from the pattern designer saying she hadn’t had time to fringe the one she made since it was for a gift, but she liked the fringe I put on mine. Wowzers!)

This one’s a giftknit, and I want to get another one on the needles ASAP for another Whovian friend. Who knows, I may start cranking these out like some people make touques. I’m not naming any names.

Search me!

You may have noticed that the blog looks a tiny bit different these days. I guess the housecleaning I’ve had to do lately has rubbed off on my cyberlife, and I finally did some tidying up.

It started with Twitter. I resisted the Facebook “temptation” (why do I need Facebook if I already have a blog?) but I did join Twitter. My account is set up so I need to approve every “follow” request, which should cut down on the spammy stuff. But it’s amusing. I did try to set up a widget here that would show my last five tweets, like on the Yarn Harlot’s blog, but since my account is set to Private it won’t let me broadcast it on my blog. Which makes sense, now that I think about it.

But since I was messing around with WordPress widgets anyway, I did make some other changes.

The Calendar seemed to have disappeared, so I put it back.

The Blogroll got trimmed. I apologize for any hurt feelings — none were intended. But I have not been able to keep up on my blog reading, so I wanted to keep the blogs I go to most frequently. I do have some blogs I need to add, but haven’t made a list of those yet.

I also added a Search widget. Now that I’ve finished a square for Paul Newman’s cause, I wanted to re-read my post about Robert Redford. Bingo! Easy peasy.

I adjusted the Recent Posts section to show the last 5 posts and no more. It was just taking up extra space.

And…. I also added the Category Cloud. That should be fun to play with.

Somewhere in all this, the spam counter got reset. Wonderful Akismet has actually blocked thousands of spam posts (Mary-rk, I’m looking at you), not just 43 or whatever it says now. But gone is gone!!

Knitwise, I did finish my square for the Double H Camp effort. It was supposed to be all red, but I got bored and it turned out like this instead:

Don’t worry, Shawn said it was okay to do that.

But now I’m kind of knitted into a corner. With that project done, my other options on the needles are a lace scarf, a Doctor Who Scarf, and a Doctor Who Scarf. I have tagged a few WIPs for the Ravelry WIPs Wrestlemania event, so I’m not starting on those until July 1.

Hello garter stitch my old friend…..

Pretending to write

Don’t tell anyone, but there’s nothing to see here today. That’s right, move along, just move along folks.

Well.

There are actually a couple of reasons to make a blog post. The first Good Reason is that I’ve finished three items since the last blog post. You would think that finishing three items would yield more than two liberated needles, but that’s technically correct (the sock was on scrap yarn while I waited for more project yarn to come in).

I finished the Clayton Prayer Shawl and got all the fringe on. If I did my math correctly, there are 60 yards of yarn for just fringe. I took it to Late Night Knitting and had my friend Dale-Harriet model it in a test fit, since she’s about Elfriede’s size. She said it fit perfectly and she was keeping it, and I’ll admit I had the tiniest clench in my chest as I tried to think of what yarn I had enough of in order to make another one of these. But she did give it back.

Then I sat down at Late Night and cranked out the rest of a Windmill Dishcloth. The ladies in the B. G. R. wouldn’t let me present it as finished to the rest of the store until I had seamed it up and woven in my ends. I got it up to the front of the store at 10:01pm, too late to ring the “FO” bell. Rats. But I started it Tuesday, finished it Friday. No complaints and I will make many more.

Then I sat back down and pulled out the Spiral Rib Anniversary socks. These were the socks I started months ago in February in Universal Deluxe Chunky Tweed, a yarn so staggeringly popular that I had to list it as a different yarn in my Rav projects because it wasn’t in the database then. (It is now, and I got to contribute a nice picture of it! Woo hoo! I have now had sixteen minutes of fame) I took a look at the pattern, realized I had not noted any of my pattern changes on the actual pattern, shrugged, put it back on the needles, and carried on for two pattern repeats. Then it was almost 11pm, so I packed up, drove an hour to get home, pulled it out again, and did two more repeats and the toe, seamed them up, and wore them to bed. I finished at a little after 1:30am. (Oh crap. As I write this, that’s still TODAY.)

I spent most of today overhauling the tiny little space in front of the master bedroom closets. It was starting to look like a Grade A Packrat had taken up residence there. You know, the old lady with the stacks of magazines and the boxes she’s planning to reuse and all the detritus of the Hoarding Life? It’s the kind of reorganizing project you can never impress anyone with, because you never have the guts to take a “before” picture. You would just be so ashamed.

It looks much better now, and could actually be used for Knitting Things. And you can open the curtain and the window and close them again and stuff. I still have various items scattered all over the bed which I will have to get cleared off before midnight, but that’s OK. Small stuff.

The second reason for writing a blog post tonight is to have written one. I want to post more frequently, but the only way to do that is to sit down and do it. Sometimes you don’t think you have anything worth recording, but you have to sit down anyway, start typing, and see what happens. Sometimes the words come alive under your fingertips and all you have to do is try to keep up. Sometimes it’s just crap and stays crap. But if you’re not at the keyboard, you don’t know which one it will be. The words won’t have a chance at all, and they’ll likely creak with rust the next time you try to let them out.

Anyway. Three projects finished, photographed, and added to the FO page for the year. Two circs liberated. One package of dpn’s briefly brought out, then returned to storage. Mark your score cards accurately because I won’t be repeating myself.

Current projects: Season 12 Doctor Who scarf (just started), Season 16 Doctor Who scarf (half done), double-knitted scarf. I probably won’t even pick up Retro Rib until July (WIP month). But I’m on the verge of casting on for a lace scarf/stole, and another Sideways Ten Pinstripe scarf for some lucky Whovian friend. Good God, what is it with the scarves? My Rav Projects page is full of them, and it doesn’t have all of them, and it’s not like I jump for joy and do backflips when I’m making scarves. (I’m more or less thinking OH JOY. ANOTHER FREAKING SCARF.) But I sure have made a ton of them.

I might have to break up the scarficity with some charity squares — Shawn of the Comments (Shawn4Equality on Rav) is helping coordinate some 12 inch squares for an Admirable Effort. He should really give the details himself; maybe I can persuade him to write a guest post. I haven’t had one of those in a while.

While I was sitting here pretending to write, I wrote over 900 words. Now I’m off to Rav to talk Shawn into writing some. Be back soon!

P.S. Keep voting on the WIP poll, or encourage a friend to help you stuff the ballot box. I think you only get one vote each but who cares. I’ll look at it at the end of June to see what’s in the lead, and that’s the project I will dedicate myself to after Tyrone has been finished.

P.P.S. Hey, that’s almost 1000 words! I wonder how many I’ll need to type before I get to that magical glorious round number that will look so impressive on my stats page. Does WordPress count how many words I’ve typed? Ye gods!

Not enough hours in the day

I feel like I have to sprint to get this post in tonight, so I’ll have at least two posts for May. (I’m still feeling guilty about having no posts in April.) Last year at this time I was probably posting 2-3 times a week. Nowadays — well, I guess I’m doing more Mom work.

Yes, there’s Ravelry, too. I recently passed 5000 posts there. That’s nothing compared to some people. (They know who they are.) But it is a lot compared to many. I have started two groups, and am a moderator on one other group, and if I don’t check in at least a few times a day the backlog starts to build up.

Anyway. Everyone here is reasonably healthy (last night’s needless ER trip with Jack notwithstanding) and the knitting is slowly proceeding.

I was getting a little bit frustrated with the knitting a few days ago, then I realized that I simply am dealing with a bunch of larger projects all jostling for my time. In addition, three of them are completely in garter stitch, which frankly isn’t very compelling to look forward to. They’ll be immensely rewarding after they’re done.

Two of the other projects are stalled sock projects. One of them (Retro Rib) is boring, and the other (Noro) is frustrating. Yes, there’s a difference!

So I’ve been spending most of my time with turning two skeins of vintage yarn into a lacy summer scarf. I may be the only person on the planet making a scarf out of DuPont Radiance acrylic. Hooray for individualism!

No spinning yet — I got the new parts for my wheel but I still need to sand, stain, and put the hooks on the new multi-speed flyer. I don’t know when that’s going to happen since I’m not in a rush about it. Right now the knitting is more important.

The Yarn-a-Latte group is well started and already has some regulars in place (shout out to Bonnie AKA Jeeplady). It’s really nice to have a Tuesday night knit that’s close by, and it’s made the last couple of Sowless Fridays easier to bear.

Knitwise, what have I finished? Well, I got a cell phone for Mother’s Day and promptly abandoned every other project to make two cell phone cozies. Out of alpaca and a friend’s handspun, thankyouverymuch. It’s hard to beat an alpaca cell phone cozy for luxury! And they are Doctor Who-themed to boot. I’m trying to figure out a cozy design for each Doctor. Starting with Ten. But I have picked up some yarn to make one for Nine (I hope).

In the television-watching department, both Chuck and Castle got renewed. And there was much rejoicing! If you haven’t watched these shows there’s plenty of time to catch up. They are both worth it. And they both feature actors from Firefly — Adam Baldwin (Jayne) and Nathan Fillion (Captain Mal) respectively. Dollhouse, with Alan Tudyk (Wash), also got renewed — I haven’t seen it but will start catching up. Unfortunately, The Sarah Connor Chronicles with Summer Glau (River Tam) was cancelled after this season. But since a friend’s viewing of that show got me directly into Firefly, I am mourning the loss of it even though I didn’t watch.

What do we watch? I don’t think I watch a lot of television (again, compared to some), but chronologically it includes Ladies’ No. 1 Detective Agency, Chuck, Castle, Top Gear, My Boys, Better Off Ted, The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Saturday Night Live, and Doctor Who/Torchwood/Sarah Jane Adventures when I can get them. Top Chef and Next Food Network TV Star when they’re “in season.” Flight of the Conchords. Anything by Anthony Bourdain when I can catch it.

When I see it all written out like that, I realize it’s more TV than I have ever regularly watched. I don’t know why. Are shows getting better? I’m not sure about that, but they are getting quirkier. I’m also watching lots of Netflix stuff, so I don’t know how I have so much time for TV. I can tell you that ever since we got the DVR we’ve been snagging more shows that we liked, just because it was easier to do so.

Remember, just after the dinosaurs were wiped off the face of the earth, when we’d put in a tape to catch a show, and we’d watch it days later? Or, actually, never get around to watching it at all? Well, when you get a message on your DVR screen that says “83 percent full” you start watching your shows to free up the space. I mean, you just have to. Otherwise you can’t record any more stuff!

When I’m not watching all this television, I’m exercising and catching up on some podcasts. I’m years to months behind on all of them, but I’m plugging away.

Back to the knitting!

Moral Imperatives

Last weekend I was talking with a friend about the progress of some of my current knitting projects.

“How’s that February Lady Sweater coming?” she asked.

“Well,” I said, “I had to finish up Logan’s Blanket, then I had to set aside everything else so I could work on this prayer shawl.”

“Ah,” she said sagely. “Sidelined by moral imperatives.”

I think that for the last six months that kind of sums it up. Every January I sit down and sketch out the projects I want to knit in the upcoming year. I love lists and plans, and it would be great to just be able to sit down and work the plan. But that’s never the way it goes.

Last fall I had started soliciting knitting patterns for a booklet I wanted to do. No sooner had I done that, than the whole Connor Caps project sprang up as something that had to be done. In the middle of it, of course, was Christmas knitting. (Not that anyone actually asked for me to knit them something for Christmas, mind you. We can only speculate how much more knitting I would have been doing had anyone actually requested a knitted item.)

This year was going to be different, yadda yadda yadda. I took up the mantle of a Christmas present that didn’t get done in time for last Christmas, and finished it (and a fraternal twin) for this Christmas. But then I started Logan’s Blanket and was still helping coordinate the other projects for Connor’s family.

Whew! I cast on a cool project for myself and finished it in time to wear it while the weather was still cold. But by then I was organizing a local knit/crochet group, which will have its first meeting tomorrow night. (You are coming to Yarn-a-Latte, aren’t you?)

The most recent moral imperative has been to knit a prayer shawl. My husband’s grandfather passed away at the age of 92 at the end of March, and his grandmother came into possession of a prayer shawl made by someone she didn’t even know. While she is very crafty indeed, knitting is not her “thing,” so she was extra impressed by the thought of someone creating such a comforting item for a stranger. Technically it’s a very simple project, but it meant so much to her that I decided to pay it forward by making a prayer shawl in her favorite colors, blue and white.

Then, last week, my former father-in-law had two heart attacks and died suddenly. And then I knew who I was making the prayer shawl for. I went stash diving, cast on, frogged what I had, re-thought the project, wrote out a pattern, cast on again, harvested the top-down sweater for the rest of the yarn, and have neglected the rest of my projects since last Tuesday. It’s a simple project, true, but the simplicity allows for a lot of meditation as the hands make the stitches. This shawl is full of prayers and happy memories and good thoughts. And though the rest of life does go on and need its own kind of attention, the other projects can wait a bit until the prayer shawl is done.

Then it’s time for starting another Doctor Who Scarf, and knitting a Christmas stocking in summer so I can publish a pattern in the fall. So it doesn’t get any more sane.

Un-knitwise, the kids all took turns getting sick over the course of a week and a half, but they’re mostly better. It doesn’t look like swine flu — cross your fingers. Tom turns out to be farsighted and will need glasses, which explains a lot. I’ve been getting some physical therapy for my hip, which has been locking up. I’m also waiting to hear about TV show renewals for Castle and Chuck. Usually I just watch the show and get mad when they cancel it, so my degree of involvement with “save my show” campaigns this time is a surprise to me. They’re both a lot of fun to watch, and I’ll miss them when they’re gone, whenever that may be.

And, of course, Yarn-a-Latte kicks off tomorrow night at Tan-a-Latte in Jefferson at 6pm tomorrow night. There will be a drawing! name tags! and coffee! (It has already been suggested that maybe I should not be having so much of the coffee.) Knitters I haven’t even met in person yet have been helping me distribute flyers across the county and a little bit beyond. All are welcome, even if you just like to sit and watch other people crochet. Nothing wrong with that!

I might even take my camera and remember to take pictures. And blog about it.

Help a knitter out

I can’t wait to show you how close I got to finishing a pair of socks in about three days.

This close!

Anybody out there who can send me 12 yards of Universal Deluxe Chunky Tweed in 06 Nottingham is officially my new best friend. My poor spiral rib socks are in hibernation until I can find a scrap of this yarn. Because I am not paying seven-something dollars for a full skein of it, plus four-something for shipping, when I only need 10 percent.

Oh, and God bless my eldest child, who suggested I unravel a little off the cuff so I could cut if off, graft it on to four-foot tail, and thereby make it to the toe. I hated the moment where I had to tell him it just doesn’t work that way. And I can’t even frog them to save an inch, because then they won’t fit. That first sock is a perfect snug fit to my foot.

Right now I’m trying to be exclusive to Logan’s Blanket. Just startin’ the third stripe now, boss. It’s not long enough to straighten out for a proper photo yet.

I also have a karma job to work on — someone on Ravelry finished a baby blanket with “a million ends” and I said “send it to me.” And she decided to! So I have a million ends of someone else’s project to weave in. She’s even paying the postage for me to ship it back to her. What a brave and trusting soul! I don’t know if she decided to go for it after she saw the project details on my 10′10″ Doctor Who scarf and its million ends, but it doesn’t matter.

I say I’m going to be exclusive on Logan’s Blanket, but there’s still a wedding anniversary coming up and some Noro sock yarn that’s been marinating in the stash for waaaaaaay too long. A quick search of the Ravelry database tells you most people use Noro sock yarn for non-sock projects, and with good reason, but socks it shall be. Huh.

I just checked my Flickr account and apparently I’ve never even taken a picture of that skein. Is it because I don’t want the wool thieves to know I have Noro in the house? I took two different pictures of the Trekking XXL Zitron, for goodness’ sake.

Oh crap. Don’t tell the wool thieves! Now they’ll know I have Trekking.

My Lenten Lifestyle change is going well. From Wednesday until about ten minutes ago I had drunk nothing but water or tea. Ten minutes ago I decided to save an opened bottle of Merlot from becoming expensive cheap vinegar. Now I think I’d go rescue a little more. Wheresh that baby blanket.

Giving up

Okay, okay, I think I get the message. You want me to finish Tyrone.

Right?

That’s fine with me. I even have a Ravfriend in Alaska that promised over a year ago to help me through the decreases. (I’ll be in touch, Birgie.)

Here’s what is currently on the needles and has to come off first.

Number One. Retro Rib Sock #2. I’ve done the cuff and the first pattern repeat on the leg. Just 16 more repeats to churn through before the heel flap. And all that that entails. Since it was my January Sock Club selection and it’s almost March, I’m starting to feel a bit of pressure. We don’t want my gauge to change, do we?

Number Two. Spiral Rib Sock #2. Snuck this one in on you, didn’t I? I started this one last Friday at Knit Night, severely modifying poor Garry Aney’s perfectly fine spiral rib pattern in bulky yarn. If I hadn’t bought self-shredding bamboo dpns to make it with, I would have finished the first sock even sooner than Sunday morning. It’s too bad they won’t fit my husband as I had intended (it was going to be an anniversary present — who knew there was a wool anniversary?!) but they will fit me. And my feet are cold.

Number Three. Norm’s Scarf. This was supposed to be a Christmas present. And it’s really sailing along right now. It’s super easy (every time I say that I have to go back two rows, but so far you can’t tell) and I’m sure it’s more than half done. Norm’s a great guy and deserves this scarf while it’s still cold outside. (If it doesn’t get done until spring, I’ll make his wife a matching scarf in baby blue. You heard it here first.)

Number Four. This is the super important one, more important than either of the socks. It’s a blanket for Logan, Connor’s little brother. The deadline is Easter, and I started it last night. Cast on 171 stitches and knit three rows of the Ann Norling “Baby Blocks Baby Blanket” pattern. It shouldn’t look very babyish in dark blue and bright red!

Number Five. Doctor Who Scarf, Season 16. But it’s just listed here for the sake of the order. If it had to come off the needles before I worked on anything else, it just wouldn’t be fair.

I thought about becoming a monogamous knitter on Logan’s blanket for Lent… but next I thought my brain would explode. We don’t want that because then we would never get the socks done, would we?

So.

Lent, for me, is going to be an attempt at 40 healthy days. Healthier eating, more exercise, better attitude, the whole thing. Take time for myself, be nice to others, the whole bit.

I should really kick it off by mailing out my swap packages tomorrow. Brandy in Texas, the lace kit came in and I’ll send you some goodies, too. Cate in Florida, I didn’t forget your spindle. Claire, I just need to find the right size box for the newspapers. And my secret Rav swap downstream partner — I’ll prep the package today. Jules, I owe you a bunch of goodies but don’t have enough yet. You’re an angel!

Fiberrific

I wasn’t planning to write a post tonight, but I’m overdue, and besides, everyone is asleep. I might as well strike while the kids are sleeping. Who knows when one of them will have a nightmare and come running down the stairs? (I never know; without my glasses I can’t read the bedside clock. My daughter swears I lift the covers for her without even waking up.)

After the Marquette scarf got done and the first sock of the pair got done, not much knitting has been taking place. I started plugging away again on the Season 16 Doctor Who Scarf, but I haven’t cast on for the second sock yet. I was going to do that tonight, but then this German wine kind of got in the way of doing a good job of it. (Then I was going to watch two episodes of Torchwood, then one episode of Torchwood, but then it took forever to get caught up on Ravelry, so here I am.)

I did, however, cast on for a new project. That’s not as terrible as it sounds. It’s really something I promised as a Christmas present, so actually it’s about time I cast on for it. It’s a simple scarf, but I considered several stitch patterns before I found something I liked. And once I did, I loved it. I think I may have finally found a scarf that knits itself. I’m using the Baby Cable Ribbing pattern from the first Barbara Walker book. It’s an easily memorized four-row pattern that you could knit in the dark if you had to. I started the scarf two days ago, haven’t put in much time on it really, and it’s fairly galloping along. I don’t think it hurts that the yarn is 100 percent Merino either.

So. I have the Scarf, the Second Sock, and the New Scarf all going right now. (As soon as I get the Second Sock going, that is.) There’s another pair of socks lined up one the Retro Rib pair are done, but I promise that as soon as one of the Scarves is done I will start working on a WIP.

And you can vote on which one it is! Shall it be:

Tyrone, the striped bottom-up sweater stuck at the raglan decreases? Since October 2007?

The Irish Hiking Scarf in cursèd yarn from Mystical Creations? Three skeins (at least) to go!

The Gullwing Lace stole in silk yarn I bought for myself last Mother’s Day?

Or, the Denim Sweater I started in November for NaKnitSweMo and didn’t even finish the crew neck? I might have enough yarn for the whole sweater, but I’m not sure.

Every vote counts. Each commenter can cast as many as ten votes — all for one project, or split them up however you like. Clearly, my own inclinations toward the next project cannot be trusted.

———

In other news, I have registered for a spinning retreat being taught by Judith MacKenzie McCuin. Naturally, I am preparing for this by spinning up fiber that I am dealing with by the seat of my pants. This works fine for the Wookie fiber, which I would love to spin up and ply so I can clear off all my bobbins, but a few nights ago I decided to card and spin up some huacaya alpaca fiber samples. I got the majority of it spun, but then something happened with the take-up and the twist was just not getting into the fiber to make it strong enough to be singles. After a half dozen tries at dragging it back through the orifice to try to draft more fiber on it, I decided to leave it alone and finish when I was calmer. So now, I just hope to finish the huacaya, and prep and spin the suri samples, and possibly do the rest of the current bag of Wookie-wool before it’s time to hoist Maggie into the van and head to Columbus (Wisc.) for the retreat.

Is anything else going on? Well, Leah went home on Top Chef. About time. I am really getting to enjoy Fabio’s screen time, and Stefan’s skills.

Doctor Who is done airing the 4th season for the American audience, and true to form, they absolutely sliced and diced the season finale so they could promote Ashes To Ashes. Which even the Brits didn’t like. So if you watched the finale last weekend and wondered what all the fuss was about, ask me and I’ll give you links to where you can see what aired in the UK.

But Torchwood is coming back on soon, so I’m trying to catching up by watching Season 2 on Netflix. Trying and not succeeding tonight. Maybe tomorrow….

Everything

Here it is, Post 300. Long in the making because, well, these benchmark numbers put one under such pressure to perform! Until, finally, it occurs to me it hasn’t been three days since the last post, it’s closer to three weeks and by the time I write the next post there won’t be anyone there to read it anyway.

Emergencies

I have had my share of little panics over the past three days three weeks. Remember that extra little Christmas we had when I found the presents I’d hidden? One of them was a Scout knife, fresh from the factory and twice as sharp. The very next day, said Scout forgetting that putting it on top of his dresser wasn’t exactly removing temptation from his four-year-old brother, we had ourselves a small crisis. I’d tell you all the details, really I would — they were hilarious! — but until some sort of statute of limitations runs out, I’m afraid I’ll have to plead the Fifth lest someone from Children’s Services is reading this and decides I need some time in solitary to reconsider my parenting skills. (Short version: I did not know the knife was on the dresser until we were on our way to the doctor’s office for some skin glue. The reasonable explanations I heard for there being blood everywhere were all lies.) But we did meet a lovely new pediatrician.

That was a Wednesday. The following Monday I went upstairs to wake the same four-year-old boy for school, and was met with a zombie. I carried his limp body down to the couch, where he lay all day, eyes glazed, fever burning, unslaked by orange juice. The doctor’s office had no open time slots, so he didn’t get there until Wednesday, when it was discovered he had an ear infection and a teensy bit of, well, pneumonia.

It’s interesting to tell people that your child has a touch of, well, pneumonia. They look at you as if you’re about to breathe some pneumonia on them as well, while the thought bubble above their head wonders do people still get pneumonia any more?

Some of them do, and I hope they’re almost done with it. Because for a whole week, TV sucked, medicine tasted nasty, I was the most horrible mommy on the earth and deserved to DIE, and school became the Emerald City. But we did meet another nice pediatrician.

Meanwhile, I was adding “I am SO going to Knit Night” to the end of every e-mail I was writing last week. The events of the night were undiminished by the fact that one of my brake lines blew out as I was leaving the Beltline on the way to Verona, and were of course completely out on the hourlong drive back. I could tell they were handling differently — I just didn’t know why. But I brought me home safe. We dropped off the van on Monday, and maybe it will be fixed tomorrow morning. And we did get to reacquaint ourselves with the guys who fix my car.

So.

I finished a Secret Knitting Project I can now call the Old School/New School Scarf. Check it out in 2009 Finished Projects. It’s a tube scarf, with colored stripes transitioning from Marquette Warrior to Marquette Golden Eagles. It’s hideously warm and was completed two days before it absolutely had to be.

I finished my January sock for the Personal Sock Club — check it out in Finished Projects as well. I finished this sock yesterday, so technically it’s a January/February sock, and I don’t care to speculate as to when the second one will be finished. I might cast on for it tonight, just so that doesn’t get delayed any further.

Who’s left? The only other active project I have is a Season 16 Doctor Who Scarf. I’m coming to terms with my other projects not really being Works In Progress, but Hibernating Items I’d Rather Not Think About For A Few More Months. But I really would like to get them all wiped out by the end of 2009.

Thanks for reading my 300th post!

P.S. I did some spinning the other night — yes, Wookie roving. I have a spinning retreat coming up in less than a month and thought I’d blow through the open bag of Wookie wool, have fun plying it, and have all the bobbins free for the retreat.