New contest!

When I saw this on the bathroom door at Ashland Coffee and Tea, I knew I had to have a photo of it.

Where's the contest in this?

Read the notice. The first person who can tell me what's wrong with this sign (as I see it) will win some Claudia yarn to be determined, probably after I come back from Florida.

UPDATE: I'm getting some good guesses, but they're not the mistake or odd phrasing that I'm looking for. You're welcome to guess as many times as you like!

News to come

Oh yeah, like it's really exciting and y'all just can't wait to hear it and it's late tonight already and I don't have my knitting photos on this computer so it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Remind me, will you, please?

Oh, and please remind me that I have another contest I want to do.

And, oh yeah, we've made more plans involving music and following bands around. More when I have time to tell you.

Life is looking so much better than it did a couple of weeks ago. Is it the antidepressant kicking in, spring and longer evenings with light, a wonderful weekend, another wonderful weekend and then a trip to Florida next week, then more music and more music and more music? Or am I just crazy?

Whatever it is, I like it. And I love Tom for putting up with me this winter and not locking me up or walking out on me.

Last Train Home again

We had us a musical weekend (yeah, I know that's not written correctly, but it's what I want to say), two nights of Last Train Home. Friday night they came to town to a new restaurant/bar which at this time is more of a bar and the place to be seen, judging by the crowd at the bar that night that shouted louder and louder as the music played and more people yelled. At each other, that is, not the band. We could barely hear the music and we were sitting near the front. My ears hurt from all that screaming, and it was frustrating that we couldn't hear the music well.

The food was great, though, and the prices aren't bad.

We spent the night with my sister who lives in town, which saved us a 45-minute ride home in the middle of the night. Zippy was there and wouldn't sleep with us; he preferred the freedom of the entire house and visiting with Kipper. It was nice to visit a little when I got up the next afternoon; then we drove to Mom and Dad's house for a drop-in and sandwiches before we went to the Saturday night show at Ashland Coffee and Tea; this is a surprisingly unpretentious little place with a full coffee and tea menu plus some food and a wonderful "music listening room" where only whispers are allowed during the show. It holds 150 people with no "standing room only" crowds allowed, the acoustics are decent, and there isn't a bad seat in the house. Too bad it's about 3 hours from home; that's the only real drawback to it, although we spent the night with Mom and Dad and had a nice time visiting the next day.


That show was so much better. There were maybe 100 people there, and there are chairs and tables that you may not move, so it doesn't get crowded.


We got there early enough to be the first people in (not that I was worried about that, not old Obsessive-Compulsive Me), so I chose what I considered to be the best table there. Right up front, next to the tiny stage. Tom went back out to the car and slept for a while, and I sat in there and knit(ted?). I dropped a stitch somewhere on the sole of the sock and didn't see it for a while, and when I did, I couldn't see well enough to pick it up correctly, so there's an odd-looking spot, but it kept the stitch from running and I'm the one who'll be wearing it, so big deal. I used to be enough OCD that I had to fix everything perfectly, but I've kind of gotten over that, if I'm the one it's for.


So anyway, the show was wonderful. There are usually the core group of four, and others mix and match as their schedules allow. In larger venues, there are as many as 11 in the group; most times we've seen them, there have been five or six (you can check their website if you want to see who's who; I'm too lazy, once again, to list them. But they're all damn good. Except I'm just not crazy about having having the trombone in the mix; it just doesn't fit their music that well. Loved the accordian this show.). There were five on Friday night, six Saturday night. People fly in and out all the time, it seems. Steve Wedemeyer used his Blackberry or whatever the hell those things are onstage to check in for his flight home to Houston the next night.

Some of them live in East Nashville (as distinguished from Nashville, which Eric Brace, lead singer, emphasises); one in Houston (or was it Austin? You know me and geography.), one in PA, some in DC. It seems pretty incredible to me that they manage to stay together as a band, what with members living all over the place and flying/driving in to meet the others. They started out in DC and most moved to East Nashville a couple of years ago.

Okay, I'm rambling. It was a good show, a good night. These guys are so good together. It's not a serious show; they joke around, but they don't mess around with their music. That's serious stuff. Go to their website (in case you haven't seen it before or don't know where to find it or something) and listen to the songs they've got there for your listening pleasure. They're not country, although they play a lot of country songs. They're not rock, although their music contains a lot of rock. They're not bluegrass, although, you know. (But three of the members formed the group The Starlighters, which is a bluegrass band.) They're just good.

Take my word for it. Buy their albums. You won't be sorry.

FO

Got some knittin' to show you! Last night I finished one (black)hearted sock. I love it. See for yourself.

The only modification I'd make is to add 4 or 8 stitches. I didn't when I started knitting because my brain is too numb to figure out how to do it. Uh, duh, there are four hearts, add one or two stitches between each heart.

It's a little snug because I usually use 68 or 72 stitches for a sock, plus this one only has ribbing at the top, not all the way down the foot as usual. But it was so nice to knit, just mindless stockinette once I got past the hearts. I did drop a couple of stitches (which I managed to pick up a few rows later, one badly), because I was knitting in the dark, more or less, before two Last Train Home shows last weekend. In light (ha!) of that, these are now my (black)hearted aka Last Train Home socks.

Heart detail:

They aren't the best, but they're the first ones I've done. I'll probably knit more of this pattern because they're so cute. I might make them of my spring yarn, Red Wagon. I think I posted a photo of that down a few posts.

For you kitty people, here's our Miss Lily, aka Fat Cat, aka Will You Quit Clawing Me B*tch.

And our current deer herd, composed of Old Mommy, her baby Charlotte, Molly the boy deer, and several others that we can't tell apart, but they probably had names when they were babies.

What a weekend!

I may have photos later. And words. Right now I'm answering phones and handing out Tylenol.

Little A

A couple of weeks ago, at her yearly medical checkup, my sweet little A, barely 8, was given a scary diagnosis, one that we've suspected for a while, but one which her pediatricians over the last two years have said, "Oh, that's perfectly normal these days."

Blogger is not allowing me to link directly lately. This is the link: http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/medical/sexual/precocious.html (okay, that doesn't appear to be working, either, but it's the correct address)

From the above link:

" What Are the Signs of Precocious Puberty?

In girls, the telltale signs of precocious puberty include any of the following before 7 or 8 years of age:
breast development
pubic or underarm hair development
rapid height growth - a growth "spurt"
onset of menstruation
acne
"mature" body odor "

A has the first three symptoms, has since the age of 6. Six! My gosh, I was well into my teens before I...... well, actually, I never had boobs until I gained weight the last few years, same with hips. I wanted boobs. Now I just want my shirts to fit again.

A's okay with the boobs. She likes them just fine. The hair? Notsomuch. Actually, it freaks her out. Totally. (I don't much blame her.)

Now, if those symptoms were the only problems Precocious Puberty caused, well, having a period at age 6-8 can be traumatic (hell, I never got used to it and was absolutely delighted when menopause finally, finally became an official diagnosis for me), but a child who's been well-prepared by her mom can cope.

But. There are problems.

(Again from the above website) "How Does Precocious Puberty Affect a Child?

When puberty ends, growth in height stops. Because their skeletons mature and bone growth stops at an earlier age than normal, kids with precocious puberty usually don't achieve their full adult height potential. Their early growth spurt may make them initially tall when compared with their peers, but they may stop growing too soon and end up at a shorter height than they would have otherwise."

A has just gone through a very rapid growth spurt. The pediatrician ordered a hand xray, which is the way it's determined if the bones have started to fuse, which means that growth will soon stop. Also, it determines the child's "bone age". A's bone age is 11-12. She's barely 8.

A's height is currently 4'6", which is at the 95th percentile for girls. Sounds good, huh? But what if she only grows a few more inches?

I'm aware that this can sound really superficial and also cruel to those who aren't tall anyway. But I'm going to use that word--"but"--we're a tall family. A's mom is 5'7", her dad is 5'10", I'm 5'9", my son is 6'5". My shortest sister is 5'7" and my two nieces are almost 6'. Mom is--or was, before she started shrinking a little--5'9", Dad is 6'. A has always expected, with good reason, to be tall (although it really disappointed her that she'd be too tall to be a good gymnast). She's always been the tallest or close to the tallest child in her class. She's used to that.

So. A saw a pediatric endocrinologist this week. He looked at her hand xray and immediately said, "She doesn't have much time", meaning that she can start her period any minute now. Her bones are fusing. He said that her pediatrician should have referred her two years ago. Oh, J tried. She told the peds, each visit, of her concerns and asked them to check things out. Nope, it's "totally normal these days". Those two pediatricians may have cost A a good 7-10 inches of height. That's totally unacceptable. What else have they overlooked when a mom insisted there was a problem?

The ped endo ordered more blood work for the insurance company, not because he needed it for a diagnosis, he said, but because the insurance company would insist upon having it before they'd consider paying for the treatment, which is $30,000 a year. (Note to former peds: You owe A's family approximately $60,000. Thank you for your attention.) Now, the ped endo said A might have a couple of weeks before it's too late to start the treatment. It's going to take another week for the bloodwork to reach the insurance company, then, it'll be 2-3 weeks before their decision, then, if it's approved, the surgery for the implant has to be scheduled. It could be months before all of this is accomplished. Remember up there: "She doesn't have much time?"

Treatment? Again--same website: "The currently approved hormone treatment is with drugs called LHRH analogs - synthetic hormones that block the body's production of the sex hormones that are causing the early puberty. Dramatic results are usually seen within a year of starting treatment with an LHRH analog, which is generally safe and usually causes no side effects in children. In girls, breast size may decrease - or at least there will be no further development. Growth in height will also slow down to a rate expected for children before puberty. A child's behavior usually becomes more age appropriate as well."

And this treatment is $30,000 a year, one implant good for a year, usually done until the girl reaches 10 or 11. The implant was just given FDA approval (yeah, I know, that's a comfort) less than two years ago; before that, the drug was given in injections every 28 days. That works well with most kids. (Catch the sarcasm there?)

If A receives this treatment, she will possibly reach 5'6", acceptable given her family history. If not, at most, she'll reach 5'. Full adult height at age 8. When A heard that, she said, "I want the implant," and J agreed.

Maybe I've been overly hysterical about this. It's hard to tell; I'm too close to A to be objective. But it's a pretty scary thing for a little girl and her grandmother who didn't have her first period till she was 13.5. And is 5'9" tall. And doesn't have to shop in the little girl's section at age 55.

It's really been difficult finding blog entries dealing with Precocious Puberty. It's my hope that someone (a mother or grandmother or sister) will Google PP and find this blog and start writing about it themselves. We need personal perspectives from those who have or are going through it.

Then there's that whole gymnast thing.....

P.S. The ped endo looked at B2, who the regular ped said is the size of a 6-8 year old, asked how old he is; when he heard "4", said that he'll be testing him next.

(black)hearted

Isn't that just the coolest name for a sock pattern? One presented on Valentine's Day and shown knitted in a bluish-black yarn? Hahahahahaha!


I've decided to attempt to knit Passion in this pattern. See, trek, it's mostly stockinette, totally mindless knitting, with little hearts along the top (and I knit socks for A with hearts on them, so I think I can manage it again) and, get this, a ruffle on the top. A ruffle. Cast on 256 stitches, then after a couple of rows decrease decrease, and end up with 64, knit a few rows of ribbing to make sure the stupid things stay up, then the hearts, then stockinette baby all the way to the heel and then to the toe.

Remind me of my enthusiasm for this project when the stockinette parts become unbearable, will you? Or, maybe not. It might be better that way.

(It appears that Blogger isn't allowing me to link to the site. It's stariel . blogspot . com/2008/02/blackhearted.html. Perhaps that will help if you want to see the photo and pattern.)

UPDATE: I've knit the two rows of 256 stitches and done the decreases, the little bit of ribbing, and am now ready to start the heart patterns. Pray for me, please.

Prizes!

Finally, finally I spent a while last night going through my stash to choose prizes for the big contest. Results below:

Deedee, who chose the pattern for the yarn Passion, gets first place, even though I'm going to be hard to get along with and picked another pattern, gets

two skeins of Claudia's Eat Your Veggies fingering.

Trillian, who gets a prize just because I'm boss and say she can, gets

two skeins of Claudia's Passion Fruit puffy fingering (sense a trend here?).

trek, who also gets a prize because I'm boss and like to be bossy, gets

A hank of Claudia's Large Loop Boucle in the Circus Dancer colorway. (This stuff makes dreamy scarves.)

Last, but most assuredly not least, my sister Betty gets this for suggesting that we grab the credit cards and head far south:

Uh, I'll get that to you next Friday when I see you, Betty. Be patient with me, please.

It's official

I have the flu. All day I've felt like crap and ached here and there. A headache comes and goes. I have chills. I want to throw up. I know you're fascinated.

The flu has been smiting people right and left for about a month, and up till now I've avoided it. I've had colds and bronchitis, but not this.

I just took my temp. Almost 101.

There goes my weekend.

(I guess it could be worse; my poor sister has pnuemonia!)

Today's short story or: The Stupids Hit Again

There's a friendly local high school here, Fictitious High. They haven't had any problems with violence, other than the usual fist fight or name-calling, some gang grafitti in the bathrooms, cat fights, a kid who's wearing colors and won't take them off (come on, it's a bandana tied around his wrist, and the dummy knows that gang colors/bandanas/headbands in any shape or form are not allowed there).

So, this afternoon, two young women came into the main office, the only way to enter the school unless some moron kid lets someone in through one of the side doors. The young women were there to take pizza to some group of troubled youths in the school. They do this every week. Those of us who work in the main office are never offered any pizza. We They just get to smell it for the rest of the afternoon.

Fictitious High, like the other Fictitious City schools, has a police resource office in full uniform stationed at the school. She was in the office today, getting ready to sign out for lunch, when a call came into the office that a young man refused to take off his gang colors bandana tied around his wrist, so she went upstairs to take care of the problem. After she came back to the office, the pizza was delivered and the delivery man left.

Several minutes later, Fictitious I answered the phone. In response to "Good afternoon, Fictitious High School," a male voice said, "Good afternoon, this is 911, I'm calling in response to a call from a pizza delivery man who said that two suspicious-looking young men wearing black hoodies were going into to the school as he left. Are you aware of any problems of this nature?" Uh, no. Fictitious I was not aware of any such thing. The office was rather full at the time, what with me Fictitious I, the resource officer, two rather large young women carting off pizzas and a cooler (what is in that thing? Shouldn't it be searched?), and six loud teenagers carrying on conversations unrelated to anything else, along with three kids asking for headache meds.

Fictitious I alerted the resource officer, who was again trying to leave for lunch, and the building's administrators of this development. The resource officer told the officer on the phone that as far as we Fictitious High's administration knew, there was no danger, but they would search the building to be sure. No need to send reinforcements.

Approximately 30 seconds later, two police cars rushed to the front of the school and four officers ran inside. Might as well fan out and check things. So here we have 1/3 of the students at lunch in the cafeteria, 2/3 of them in classrooms, possibly two dangerous men, and five people known to be carrying weapons legally. They searched the school as quickly and efficiently as possible, then determined after talking to Pizza Delivery Man that the suspects had been about 200 feet away from the building, at the transit stop, waiting for the bus. They had not been near the building when PDM called 911. The bus had already picked them up so it wasn't known who they were.

By this time, the resource office was rather pissed off that PDM hadn't bothered to call the school after he called 911. It would have been nice if someone inside (and the main office is the only yadda yadda yadda) (which is where I Fictitious I works 1/4 of every school day) had known about this before a bunch of officers came rushing in and there'd been a lot of yelling on the walkie talkies that all administrators and the resource office carry. Everyone in the school was aware of what was going on. It's one of those things that the administration tries to keep quiet, but it never happens that way.

So. No danger. Police officers ready to leave. A fifth one came in at this time. Time to arrest a fine, upstanding young man young hoodlum and cart him off to jail. Not that this is anything new; there's no violence at Fictitious High, but there are plenty of small time hoods. So Alleged Perpetrator (of what this time? Don't know yet. I Fictitious I will find out.) was called to the office, warrant was served on him, and off he went with his escorts.

Fictitious High's resource office never got her lunch today.

Fictitious I knows where she will hide if any suspicious people make their way into the school. Fictitious I knows all the good places. She has a plan.


P. S. Three kids trashed a boy's bathroom this afternoon, too. The fun never ends.

I've got the stupids again

Sometimes the simplest knitting pattern just won't make it through my gooey brain cells to the knitting neuron. Sometimes I just get stupid and knit purl knit purl--and nothing else--suddenly is Russian.



Okay, this pattern is not a difficult one, if my assessment of it is correct. There are no stitches other than knits and purls, no yos, no ssks, no cables. But my knitting neuron was evidentally turned off yesterday.



Hmmmm, that doesn't look quite right, does it? So let's rip it out to the ribbing and try again.



If I remember correctly, there are only 12 rows to the pattern. Most are simply "knit" or simply "purl". There are two that say "*k 12, turn, p6, turn, k6, turn, p6, turn, k6 p6, turn, k6* and repeat from *", and the other row is reversed with k6 at the start and k12 at the end.

From what I can sort of understand, this one row takes a while to knit, what with all those turns and going back over what was already knitted on that needle, but should almost all of the actual knitting end up on one needle? No. It means I made a mistake. Twice.

Patience at an end, several hours of prime knitting time wasted, sock frogged. Twice. And I'm looking for another "simple" pattern. It's starting to look like a ribbed sock is all I can manage. I'm afraid to even think of Pomatomus. The words might leap off the page and clog up that knitting neuron and kill me.

And that nice dark Santa Fe colorway isn't looking too good to me right now, either.

Last Train Home

Last Train Home is coming back to Harrisonburg after a year's absence! These guys are just the absolute best alt country band--or any kind of band, for that matter--and they give an incredible show. Come join us; some people from school are showing interest, maybe we can pack the place.

Good times, good times, to quote my grandson.

They'll also be at Ashland Coffee & Tea the following night and Tom and I are planning to go there, too.

Yeah, they're that good.

Bag of happy

Somehow I managed to win a contest over at http://mspalmtree.blogspot.com/, Nancy's blog. She'd asked for knitting tips, so of course I had my smart mouth on that day and suggested "Stop knitting after two or three glasses of wine. You'll cry less the next day."

Well, this is what she sent to me:



Two skeins of this beautiful 100% wool Palermo (just the name makes me drool!) and a little sachet to keep the buggies away. It smells sooo good!



But what made me sit in my car and laugh out loud for the longest time was this:


I started reading it that night. It's very funny and just what I needed.

How's that for appropriate?

Thank you, Nancy! I love it all!

That's my boy!

Poor A has the flu, and she had the luck to be struck while on the Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day ride at WDW. Twice.

B2 was a great help, as he always is when bossing is needed. J's email:

"We did go to Disney yesterday. A kept saying she was feeling better... she threw-up on the Winnie the Pooh ride- yep- people were sitting right behind us...then she threw-up when she got off...they gave her a voucher to buy new pants! We obviously went home at that point.

Flu, I guess. Great. B2 will have a wonderful time when he gets it. Yesterday he LOUDLY kept telling A "GET IT ALL OUT A! JUST THROW UP- IT OKAY A- JUST GET IT ALLLLLL OUT!!! JUST THROW UP!!!" Uggghhhhhhhhhhh...

She got a pair of ugly pink stoned Princess sweatpants and changed into them there. Yuck. She even insisted that I push her out to the car in a wheelchair after I could no longer carry her on my back. (While B2 is yelling "LOOK OUT PEOPLE!!! WATCH OUT EVERYBODY!!!" in his bossiest tone, trying to keep his hands on the wheelchair the best he could.)

To quote B2, 'Good times, good times.' "

For some reason I keep picturing Disney World as being this huge petri dish......

Passion contest

Thank you to Deedee, Trillian, Betty, and trek for entering my Passion contest. For the winners:

*trumpet blast*

Winning pattern entry: Deedee--Pomatomus (is that spelled right?). I know that the yarn can speak for itself, and no doubt will, but right now I need a challenge, at least until I get so aggravated with it that it's frogged and banished for a while. If my tendonitis doesn't start up again, that's the pattern I'll try. Prize: TBA. I have to go home and rummage through my stash. Maybe I should have thought this through and picked the prizes first, but I have very little self-control.

Best idea to beat the February blues: March. Just kidding. It's a tie, Betty and Deedee, since they both had the same theme going. Again, prize TBA.

And since only four people entered: Trillian and trek will both receive prizes just because I can do that. I'm sweet like that. Prizes TBA.

In the meantime, if I don't have your mailing info, please email it to me at mpost @ harrisonburg dot k12 dot va dot us . I'll let you know when the prizes go out.

And thank you, guys.

Note to CNN

Please get over Prince Harry being "pulled out of the line of fire".

I've watched the princes grow as much as anyone has (maybe), but they're grown up now. Their momma's been dead for a long time. Leave the boys alone.

And while I'm at it, please report genuine news. I really really don't care what Britney is doing to herself these days.

There is one more option: *click*

Baby socks

I finished these socks a week ago Friday, the day the baby was born (son of a teacher here) but didn't get them to him until this morning. Still, they're done, and I'm pleased with them. They're from some leftover Strawberry Fields from vieuxrouet at etsy. I made a pair for myself, but I think these are prettier.

See what blog browsing gets you?

NH Knitting Mama

A contest. This lady has some incredible yarns in her etsy shop. And you can go to her blog and enter the contest for some kind of knitting goodies. And link to her shop and tell her about it and you can enter again.

I found her at InsanKnitty’s blog. She has an etsy shop, too.

Weekend 'o' knitting

February's over! It was 60 degrees yesterday! I finished those blasted I'm So Done Mother&Daughter Socks!



*ahem* See what a little sunshine and warm(er) weather do for me? *note to self and Tom: we have to buy a house in South Florida. Soon.*

Last night, just before bedtime, I finished the blasted M&D socks, and if I do say so myself (and I do), they're lovely. I immediately picked out some yarn for the Bremen Muster socks, some Claudia Santa Fe, a colorway that's been discontinued, the very first Claudia yarn I ever bought, a colorway that I snarfed right up when she was getting rid of it. This one is a little darker than most, but I still love it.



But I might get a wild hair and buy some Fingering 55 for these socks, merino/silk, which takes color in a different way, so the same colorway looks totally different and luminous. These socks just deserve something special.

Time to run downstairs to the attendance office and hand out detention notices to the kids who insist on being tardy every day.

One more day

Till payday--and the end of February!!!!!

I'm looking forward to brighter days and better mental health.

It's freaking cold and windy tonight.

That is all.




It had better be.

Future socks

I love these socks. I found them on Ravelry, waited till the pattern was published in English (they were originally in German, and I'm sure that my annoying, begging emails did nothing to hurry the process), and decided that I can actually probably knit them.

Bremen Muster

(link to Ravelry page--if you aren't registered there yet, let me know and somehow I'll figure out how to get it to you.)

I'd planned for them to be the next socks I knit; they're so colorful and perfect for just about any of my stash of sock yarn. Except Passion. They're not right for the Passion.

My quest continues. Thank you for the pattern suggestions and life-saving measures so far!

Amended to include link to pattern. I have to knit these soon!

Passion--and a CONTEST!!!

We all need a little passion in our lives, no? Especially when it's February and dreary and no hope of anything like warm weather here for 3 months, and then it's just a tease.

So this will be the basis for my next project. It will be socks, but I don't know what pattern yet. I might try Monkey all in knit, no purls, but it just can't be more knit3purl1 ribbing all down the freaking leg.

Any suggestions? I've never knit a cable and don't want to start now; I need something relatively mindless, since I am relatively mindless by this time.

Description from etsy:

"Passion. Have you lost that loving feeling? Have you got too much of that loving feeling? Need something more to get you through the day? Try adding a little Passion to your life….or your stash. Passion is 100% superwash, fingering weight, merino wool. Dancing from red, to black, to purple, to deep magenta, this colorway captures all those roller coaster feelings. Wrap this 95 grams (+/- 440 yards) of pure passion around your tootsies today. "

Whoever comes up with the best pattern/suggestion for this yarn will win 2 skeins of Claudia's Hand Painted Yarn, my choice. Also, the best suggestion for chasing away the Will Spring EVER Come? blues will get a prize, who knows what yet, but it'll be something.

UPDATE: I guess I should put a deadline on this. How about Saturday, March 1, any comment marked "Saturday, March 1" is fine; no need to worry about time zones.

Hey, that means that February will be over. Over! On to March!

And if you want extra chances to win, link to my blog from yours and tell me you did so. And if someone finds this from your blog, tell them to tell me where they found this, yadda yadda yadda the usual contest rules. And you can enter as many times as you like. I need help here, people!

Almost D O N E !

Identical Sock #7, for your viewing pleasure.

I've cast on for Identical Sock #8. I'm this close to finishing these chains around my neck and going on to something fun, probably socks with this yarn:

That worked well. Turns out I didn't take a photo of it. Let me see if I can find it.

Get me out of here, con't

Remember the nasty kid who was in here on Thursday spreading Germs of Doom? He's back. Leaving class again because he's too sick to be here, but for some reason this morning he decided it was the Right Thing to come on in and share more Germs of Doom with the rest of us.

Some of us would like to avoid catching anything more than we already have, thankyouverymuch, Nasty Kid.

The knittin' blues

Right now there's nothing that I want to knit. I hate it when that happens. I think it was caused by having to knit 4 pairs of socks from the same yarn. I have nothing against the yarn; it's soft and pretty and I enjoy knitting with it. But 4 pairs of socks in knit 3 purl 1 ribbing? I want to try something different, something for ME. Something of bright colors.

By the way, I'm so over those little doggie legwarmers. I tried the one I'd sorta finished on a little Yorkie, and it was too small. Damn. Just FIDO.

I'm not FUBAB!

At least, not today. I won a runner-up prize on http://mspalmtree.blogspot.com/ . Don't know what I won, but I won. And that keeps today from being FUMTU.

Thank you, mspalmtree, for saving my day.

Why do I find these so funny?

FIDO - Fuck It-Drive On (or Forget it-Drive On when censored)
FUBAR - Fucked Up Beyond All Repair/Recognition
FUBB - Fucked Up Beyond Belief
FUMTU - Fucked Up More Than Usual
JANFU - Joint Army-Navy Fuck Up
TARFU - Things Are Really Fucked Up
SNAFU - Situation Normal: All Fucked Up
FUBAB - Fucked Up Beyond ALL Belief
FUBIJAR - Fucked Up But I'm Just A Reservist

Am I just plain FUBAB?

Oh please please please

Puppy love

I found the perfect model for the legwarmers when they're done (as if). Claudia's dog, Bitsy. I think they'll fit perfectly.

And Bitsy is an attention whore who'll roll over for anyone who'll rub her tummy.

Get me out of here!

For the love of God, don't parents teach their little monsters to cover their mouths when they cough? I mean, this kid is in high school, he has a nasty something or other, probably the freaking flu since that's what several hundred others have had lately, and he's sitting here waiting for Mama, coughing away, spewing out germs by the million.

I've had enough. How much longer till I can retire and receive my full benefits? Less than 5.5 years, actually; 4.5 if I buy back that first year when I thought I'd never work for a school again so I took out the whole $160 that I'd contributed to the Virginia Retirement System. Now it'll cost $1250 to buy it back, but I'm thinking it would be worth every penny.

Happy birthday, Baby Girl!

Okay, you're not a baby, but you're my only daughter, so that automatically makes you my baby girl.

Thirty-six years ago tonight you were born, during a huge snowstorm and after only 2.5 hours labor, my first child. This was back when the doctors still sedated the hell out of women (I know, you wish that your kids were born during that mindset) and I couldn't move from the waist down. Push? Huh? How? Using what muscles? I couldn't feel them.

The doctor had also forgotten just how nearsighted I am, and he held you up for me to see you. Then he remembered, so he touched you to my nose. I know that fact thrills you; maybe that's why bleach wipies play such a huge part in your life. Then you were wisked away to the nursery. It was a bit before I actually got to hold you. I'd been waiting so long for that moment.

But I'd heard your cry, and every time they brought the babies down the hall to their mommies, I could tell which one was you. (This was also before rooming in was even allowed, probably not even thought of in our small town.) You were my beautiful baby girl, and I loved you so much.

You're still my beautiful girl, and I still love you so much. Happy birthday, sweetie.

Obsession

Yeah, I'm obsessed. Again. What is it with me? Why does this happen? And why does it happen in my sleep?

Friday night I kept dreaming about knitting those cute little doggie leg warmers. They're totally useless, but they're so damn cute. So all night I'm dreaming about them. When I finally dragged my @ss out of bed, I knew I had to knit them. Right then.

So I fiddled with them all day. All day, people. I tried different weight yarns with different size needles. I finally chose Claudia's Chocolate Cherry puffy fingering, size 2.5 US needles, and went to town.

After we came back from town (haha, Franklin, if you need to know), I kept working on the first of those little suckers. How can something with such a simple pattern be such a pain in the ass? It couldn't be because I'm knitting something totally useless and wasting my good yarn, could it? It couldn't be that damn obsession. It couldn't be the wine. I don't drink that early in the day.



Anyway, by bedtime, I had one tiny useless legwarmer, minus the useless ribbon that won't hold it up on any dog's leg, but it'll be adorable. I tried it on Zippy but he tried to hide, running without putting any weight on that foot, and no it wasn't too tight. It was too humiliating. This from a dog who regularly puts up with humiliation.

I managed to get the second useless one started last night, but I just couldn't finish it. That flu-shovel hit me again and I had to go to bed even earlier than usual on a Sunday night.



Pray for me. I don't want to go through my entire stash making useless leg warmers. Please send help. And wine. Red. I'm going to need it.

Prize for blankie squares for Elisa's dad

Claudia's, of course.

Spring Break colorway. Approximately 175 yards per 50-gram skein. It'll take one skein per sock.

Sorry about the crappy photos; it was a dark and stormy night dreary day, inside and out, so these will have to do. It really is a lovely yarn, and I have enough left to make some socks for ME!

Winners will be announced at maryse's website when she finally digs through the mounds of squares she's received.

Days Go By is having a contest for her 300th blog post. Go check it out, and tell her I sent you!

P.S. Scroll down; she has some pretty photos of a beach.

Homeschooling, anyone?

My daughter is thinking of homeschooling A, who is 8 and in the second grade. They live in Orlando. Where does she start? What support is there for homeschooling? How has it worked for you? Have your kids later gone to public schools? How about state-mandated testing? Like the SOLs (so appropriately abbreviated) in Virginia, and the FCATs in Florida (the first letter is also very appropriate, I think)?

Anyone have any experience? Cass does, and she's promised to write about it in her blog. I can't wait; Cass is the homeschooling goddess, in my humble opinion.

I anxiously await help! (Wait, isn't the Effexor supposed to take care of that anxiety? Bad time to be fiddling with the dose.)

I'm DONE

You can bet

that the first project I make from Pampered Pooches will be those darling leg warmers!

And the winner is......

Me!

I haven't bought yarn since I bought some of Claudia's back in September or so. I haven't needed to buy yarn. I have plenty. I didn't plan to buy any yarn (although thoughts of nice, soft superwash for babies was becoming an obsession). But last week, the woman for whom I'm knitting the I'm Done socks told me that our favorite (and only 3 years old) LYS is going out of business.

I may have written about this before. I have no brain cells left that aren't full of song lyrics from the 60s, along with who wrote what song and what the flip side of the record was. But that's another story. I may write it someday, if I can remember it.

Okay, looks like I didn't mention that my favorite LYS is going out of business. So, now you know.

There have been 3 yarn shops in this small city for the last three years. Two opened at the same time, which was unfortunate, because the larger one already had a following from the small shop the owner had a few miles down the road. I would have thought that they could all coexist peacefully and continue into infinity; they have different types of yarn, different types of knitters, different philosophies. (philosophy? Why, yes, I use philosophy products, and if anyone out there wants to buy a gift for someone special who could really really use a neck lift and a new decollete, here's a good place to start.)

Where was I? Oh, the LYS.

ANYway, since I've been such a bad customer for the last year (I had big hopes when she opened, but a yarn diet dashed those), I felt obligated to go in and buy what I could, especially since some of the prices are really good. Most things were 25% off, but some of the yarn was 50-75% off, and I found some bargains. Including some of that superwash I've been dreaming about.

I'd seen this before online and thought it was cute, so I bought it for A so she can have the darling knitting needles and I can have the darling book of doggie patterns:



Closeup of the needles:



I'd love to have them for myself, but I have to be reasonable; I don't like to use straight needles, and these are the right size for A. I'm not dumb enough to harbor hope that they'll last forever and she can pass them down to her daughter or granddaughter, they'll probably get lost when B2 takes them to play Tower of Terror or Doggie Rides the Monorail, but they're cute and they weren't expensive.

Next, some luscious Bam Boo that's soft and coral (a favorite color of mine) and I don't know what I'll do with it, but it was half off and I had to have it.



Lily Chin superwash in a dark sapphire:



Only 3 balls, unfortunately. I was envisioning a hat, sweater, and booties for a teacher's new baby boy.

Last, more superwash, a deeper, maybe grayer blue, in Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride bulky, the first of this brand I've had:



There. My conscience is appeased. And I have superwash to play with. Win-win, if you ask me.

A dog's life

There's hope

See thos tiny spots? They're geese. Flying north. And Bessie, the old mommy deer, has lost all of her winter fuzz (except that odd rectangular clump on her neck).



Dare I even hope???

Cat

Remember the Kliban Cat? We have our own.

Or is that Bill the Cat?

Rippin' socks

I've bragged so much about these damn socks that it was inevitable that I hit a snag.

This is the second set of mother and daughter socks from Claudia's Blue Sky fingering, and I've loved the colors and the yarn and the general knitting. Until it hit.

The lady who commissioned the socks (and I'm not going to spellcheck that, either; that's just the mood I'm in) gave me a piece of paper with her foot outlined and "size 10 ladies" written on it. Now I'm a size 8, and my foot fit that little drawing perfectly, so I knew that I couldn't go by that. A simple "10.66 inches" was all I needed, which is what I got from a chart I found online. So I knit the first sock, measured, knit some more, measured some more, kept knitting until I thought it was safe to decrease for the toes.

So I decreased. And when I measured the sock against my foot, it was more of a size 9, maybe. Definitely not a size 10.

The lady tried it on and it was just a tad too short, so, being the accommodating creature that I am (Tom, don't you laugh at that), I told her I'd take the toe out (after all that careful grafting and making sure the seam would never ever come undone) and make it longer. But first, I knit the second sock, measured it repeatedly (usually it was shorter each time) (how on earth does that happen? It always happens.), was satisfied that it was long enough, and decreased for the toe. Got to the grafting part, and get this--it was shorter than the first sock. Shorter.

The air was blue that night. I ripped that damn toe out, picked up those damn stitches, and reknit that damn toe, this time longer. And longer. And longer. I swear, it had better fit this time, because I'm done with those socks, including the first one, which I ripped out last night (without cursing too much, which was pretty good considering that I'd spent two days working in the school's attendance office which is the school version of Hell and considering that I've been decreasing my dose of Effexor XR, hoping that I won't feel as stupid) (yeah, that's working real well, isn't it?) and started reknitting. It only needs to be .5" longer, although it could be 6"; at this point I'm not sure. And I don't care.

But there's a silver lining; I've heard that Claudia's fingering skeins aren't long enough for a bigger sock, and I've worried that I'd have to switch to a new skein at the toes of these size 10s. I hate having to weave in ends on socks; there just doesn't seem to be a comfortable place to put the ends. But I had over a yard of yarn left! More than 36"! And I didn't make the legs short, either. I made them the length I like, which is pretty long according to most sock patterns. I don't want my dry winter legs peeking out between my socks and my slacks.

So that's good news for the second sock. Now I just have to finish the first, which was, you might remember, too short and had to be ripped apart so I can make it longer, which means I'll have to have two more ends to weave in somewhere in the toe area. *sigh*



One pair of toddler socks and I'm done with this order. I'm so done.

.

.

.

But they're so pretty. I can't stay mad at them for long.

So, what do you think about this?

Wine rack.

Textured rib stitch

Okay, I'm so pleased with myself for actually trying a new stitch that I have to show it off in better (I hope) photos. I'm also tickled that it turned out so well, especially for this project. I've got to use it again. I don't think that I can give the pattern here (even though it's only a 4-row repeat, since it's published in a book, I guess it's a no-no to reprint it), but you can find it on page 64 of The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd, no doubt available at your friendly local and online bookstores).

Closeups of the stitch:

















I think I've found the pattern for my next scarf. It wasn't that hard to do while watching tv, I only cursed a little while knitting, and I love the look.

I tried something new and it worked, for once!

Blanket squares

It's so cool the way that friends can be made just by reading what they write. I love to read blogs, knitting blogs, mommy blogs, doggie blogs, just about any kind of blog, and I've met some wonderful people that way. I'll probably never meet most of them in person, but just the same, they're friends.

It's happened many times before, blog friends banding together to help friends who are in need, whether it's financial need, a virtual hug, a get-well gift, whatever is needed at the time. This time it's blanket squares. Maryse started the blog blanket for Elisa's dad, and it's amazing the response to her request. Elisa's dad might get a king-sized blanket, or maybe two blankets. It's heartwarming and just plain old warming for her dad!

So here are my three contributions; I'd make more, but but I need to get them in the mail this week. I just wish I had more superwash yarn in any color but pink (probably 10 skeins of pink), which is great for little girls (big ones, too) but notsomuch for an older man. And Claudia doesn't dye superwash yarn, so all those delightful yarns are out. (The blanket/s will be washed in a hospital's laundry, so plain old wool is just not an option.) (Unblocked so far, of course; I hate blocking anything, which could explain why so many FOs are still in plastic sweater boxes, unwearable.)

From the left: some peachy superwash left over from (forgive me, Elisa) a doggie sweater for my elderly Pookie several years ago; probably mostly acrylic left over from my very first pair of handknit socks; and my favorite, a gorgeous sapphire blue that I'd bought for a baby hat that was never knit. I used a textured rib pattern that I found in Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, a book that has an incredible assortment of patterns that can be translated into any size needles but has totally intimidated me (too many charts, and charts = math to me, and I just don't do math).

So, off to psyching myself up to blocking some squares. In spite of having to (ugh) block, I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to pass along a little knitterly love. Pay it forward, you know.

Nana's stash

I come by this honestly. The stash thing, I mean. My mom's mother, Nana, was a born crafter. She bought and saved patterns from newspspers back when the paper had a new crochet pattern offered every day, and she had a stack yeay high of books of crochet patterns. And, of course, she kept a nice stash of yarns and crochet threads.

When Nana died, Mom offered me The Stash, which I scarfed up, of course. Like Nana, I might not use all of the things in it, but I just might. You just never know.

So last weekend I was looking for something to knit a blanket square for Elisa's dad, and I found this:




Two skeins of this soft, fuzzy Dazzle--and look at that price! After some thought, though, I decided that it needs to be made into doll blankets for my two granddaughters; Nana would be delighted that they'd have something of hers. (A has Nana's maiden name for her middle name, which I think is really sweet.)

On to the next post, in which I show the three squares I knit for Elisa's dad's blanket.

rita's day off

Woohoo for an ice storm! Day off from school--on a Friday, yet. We have four days built into the calendar; so much for getting out almost a week early in June, but what the hey, it's a three-day weekend. In the dead of winter.

Even though it seems to be about 20 degrees, the rain has washed the ice off the trees (at least, the trees in sight, which admittedly isn't far). I did manage to take a few photos before it all disappeared, after sleeping late, doing a little (very little) laundry, and sitting here for two hours playing with changes to my blog. Like adding the links to blogs that I like to read. This is just a small portion of my list, but after sitting here that long, I'm finished for today.



Yes. That is a West Virginia outhouse in our yard.