Cleaning House

February 3, 2006 By

Metaphorically speaking ONLY. I will clean the house, nay I’ll organize the SHIT out of the house and it will be a heavenly palace (cleanliness being next to godliness and all) but not yet. Baby steps. Itty bitty baby steps.

By the way, to clear up a few things from yesterday: I am fully aware of the goodness a cleaning person can offer me. I grew up with a cleaning lady. She came every other week and her name was Althea and she used to smoke. IN OUR HOUSE. Which when I think about it now is extraordinary. For years the smell of clean to me was cigarette smoke mixed with Lysol. Things were very different back then. My mother would pick her up at the train in the morning and she would eat breakfast and lunch at our house. Breakfast was toast and coffee, I think, I could be making it all up, but probably not and lunch was always a TV Dinner. God I wanted those TV Dinners. It seemed like such a treat. SNORT! Little did I know I’d be subsisting on frozen meals for most of my adult life. HA!

Anyway, I come from a long line of terrible housekeepers – and we fully admit and embrace our defect – and hired my own cleaning lady. When we moved into our new apartment (god EIGHT years ago!), which had 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and an office, along with the requisite kitchen, living room, dining room I told G we needed a cleaning person. Let’s just say that when we moved out of our old one bedroom/one bath the word squalor was used by our landlord. In my defence he was being prickly, but it was pretty bad. So we had a cleaning woman for five long years and then by mutual decision our time together ended. Turns out cleaning people are in short supply around here unless you want to pay through the nose or hire a “team” of people. I just want someone to come every other week and clean my house better than I would clean it myself. I’m willing to pay. Anyway – the house got so bad that we couldn’t hire a cleaning person any more without totally rehauling the house. I actually have a name, but I’ve got the get the house in order. So there’s that.

One other thing. The Oprah debacle. In my post yesterday I did not mean to imply that I was defending Frey in any way. The guy lied – and not only did he lie – he lied about stuff that was easily verifiable. In my mind he WANTED to get caught. I mean there’s a big freaking difference between three MONTHS in jail and three HOURS. And dude – you know – they keep RECORDS about that stuff. Now I’m sure his three hours FELT like three months, but still. A good writer could’ve conceivably evoked that feeling without the actual lie. No, my defense was more for Nan Talese and MEMOIR as a form. Given the dressing down poor Ms. Talese received from Oprah – don’t you check EVERY FACT in the book? Well, again, I renew my argument that MEMOIR is about memory – which is never wholly accurate. I think Oprah’s call for fact-checkers in every corner (and I think fact-checkers are very important – one of my favorite jobs EVER) is unnecessary and needlessly alarmist.

Okay. Back to what I really want to talk about today. Cleaning House. My knitting house. I said yesterday I was bored and I’m still bored. I didn’t spin yesterday. I didn’t knit really either. But I did read some of Barbara Walker’s Knitting from the Top Down. What a GREAT idea! How come no one told me what a GREAT IDEA knitting from the top down was? I want to make another Almost Everyday Cardigan. My Manos one pilled beyond belief so I never wear it – that and the fact that it’s like a guaranteed sauna and the weather is just not cold enough. I want another sweater I can ACTUALLY wear every day and never take off and will be like the sweatshirt that I wear constantly that is now so gross I’ve taken to wearing G’s because his is softer and nicer and rarely gets worn. Anyway, I went through the stash and took out some of my Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed that I have. Remember when this stuff was practically being given away on Elann? Yeah. I bought a shitload. So I started to swatch.

I know. About fifteen rows in I got bored. BUT I love the fabric this yarn makes. Have you ever knit with it before? It’s sticky, for lack of a better word, but soft and in the end the fabric – especially a stockinette fabric – feels like a great sweatshirt. I’m so making this! Top Down Raglan Cardigan. Because I can’t do pullovers. I want to cast on THIS MINUTE.

And then I remembered all the other crap I’m supposed to be making. Here’s where we get to cleaning house. I should’ve done this back in January but better late than never. I’m going to list my projects – the ones I’m giving up on – the ones I’m in the middle of and don’t want to turn back – and the ones I have every intention of making. Then I’m going to look at it and cry.

Stuff That’s GOT to GO!!
(Or at least come off the sidebar.)

Nona’s Gloves. Welp, the KAL is over and I hate the glove I’ve got so far. So rip, rip, rip.

Noro Silk Garden Wrap. I see a Lady Eleanor in my future. Not 100% sure of this though.

Ribby Cardi. All the pieces are neatly in the bag and I can honestly say I will never seam them up. This is the deal: I don’t like ribbing and more importantly, I will never knit with a yarn I HATE again. Peruvian Highland Wool doomed this project for me. KILLED it. Oh I don’t know. Never say never, but I’m saying maybe never.

Cuba Libre Socks. I found out that I despise purling in socks. Funny because I really love to purl otherwise, but I hate purling in the round, maybe? The Retro Rib pattern, while easy on the eyes, was INCREDIBLY tedious. The sock that’s on the needles will be ripped, as soon as I can find it. (Oh and Kay – if you click on the link for this entry and scroll down you’ll see the Army picture.)

Sunshine Socks. This is another case of I hate the yarn. One sock is done and one is on the needles and while I won’t be ripping these, I will be putting them away somewhere so they’re not sitting on the floor next to my bed taunting me. I started knitting these B.STR. (Before Socks That Rock) and you know – the yarn feels like crap compared. CRAP.

Pinwheel Baby Blanket. This will be done before Eli’s Bar Mitzvah. But I don’t like it. And I feel bad about it because it’s a great pattern and a great yarn and I don’t know why it doesn’t work for me but I’m sick of seeing it in the sidebar every time I come to my blog. So it’s going. But not being ripped.

Stuff I’ve Started and I’m DEFINITELY Going to Finish

Powell 106. Lace shawl – I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately – thinking it might be just the thing to get me out of my boredom. I will for sure finish this at some point.

Prairie Blanket. Hopefully this will be finished for Xavier’s first birthday – but I’m not promising anything honey pie.

Wendy’s Warm Hands Mittens. This is just
stupid because one’s done and one is half done and in a couple of hours I’d have a pair. I’m an ass.

Jaywalker Socks. I’ve currently got three socks finished for three different pairs. One mate is to the heel, one mate is in the cuff. I plan to have a pair of these in STR on the needles at all times. Of course I will.

Okay – now here’s where things get hairy….

Stuff I TOTALLY Want to Make and Goddamnit I WILL!

Crossed In Translation Cardigan. I’m almost ready to start swatching. G’s going to be gone a lot this weekend so I thought I might take the alone time to work out the charts in Excel so I can start to swatch and get a handle on the project. Also, I’m hoping SOMEONE will swatch some of the VY yarn I bought so I can know if it’s worth swatching. I so totally want this yarn to be IT.

Pirate Mittens. I’m making these for the Knit Olympics. Yarn has been ordered (Neon Pink and Navy Blue Dale of Norway Falk) and should be here this weekend. Defeat is not an option.

Jo Sharp Top Down Raglan Cardigan. See above.

Dad’s Sweater. I’ve got the yarn. Have to put the pattern together, but I will knit this for my father. Someday.

Diamond Fantasy Shawl 2.0. In black STR with beads in the center of the Diamonds. I think about this all the time!

Sockapalooza Socks. Looking for patterns as we speak.

My So Called Scarf. To match the Warm Hands Mittens. This is iffy. I’m not good at scarfs. I get bored super quick. But I want this set badly, so we’ll see.

Elizabeth Bag. I’ve got some gorgeous RED Donegal Tweed in the stash for this. It will happen. Sometime in my life.

Okay. Not as bad as I thought. These are the projects I think about all the time. There are others I promised and am trying to ignore. As well as others I keep in the back of my mind. And of course all those unknown patterns out there dying to be knit by me, I just don’t know it yet. 😉 Ahh. The life of a knitter.

Time to go procrastinate some more. Have a FANTASTIC weekend.
L, C

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Birthday Redux

January 18, 2006 By

[Warning – this turned into a really long post. It was cathartic – but don’t feel like you need to read the whole thing.]

I get so emotional baby, every time I think of you-u-u! It’s emotional hangover time here at the blog, yet again. Slap me if I sound like a broken record. Emotions, emotions, emotions! The psycohological equivalent of Jan Brady, if you will. Feelings, whoa-o-oh feelings! Will someone PLEASE turn it off?! Please?

It’s a monsoon outside today, but inside it’s nice and quiet and warm because the love of my life sealed up all the windows this weekend. We live in something of a wind tunnel and the windows seem to have these huge gaps in them. They also line the entire west side of the apartment. That’s a decent amount of windows. There’s one room, when you walk by, your hair starts blowing around and you feel this arctic blast. We keep the door of that room closed until we do the seal; it always reminds me of the kids’ room in Poltergeist – you know, when JoBeth Williams opens the door and all the toys are flying around? That’s our den, possessed, but not anymore! Georgie! My hero!

Speaking of Georgie, he’s partly the reason for so much emotion these days. I’ve now known G for almost 19 years! And in all of the time I’ve known him he’s been living with some kind of pain. Since he was around fourteen he’s been having tons of trouble with his knees – but being the man he is – he played through it by being on the basketball and tennis teams in high school and college and spending his adulthood playing one or the other sport at least a few times a week. Poor Georgie has the body of a scholar and the mind of an athlete. You know how we love to knit and spin and craft? How about if someone told us we’d never be able to knit again? It would cause us to shrivel up into a little ball in the back of the closet and never want to see the light of day. That’s how my darling husband feels about his tennis. Basketball’s been out of the question for quite some time.

Things were looking up for awhile there. After his fifth knee surgery in seven years it looked like things were taken care of – his knees actually felt good! And then the hip pain started. At first he thought it was a groin pull but gradually it got worse and worse and finally he had the hip scoped down in Nashville. That was in ’03 and the doctor came out to talk to me while G was in recovery. His exact words were “he’s got the hips of an 80-year-old man.” My gorgeous husband is 43. It’s some kind of a degenerative tissue thing that’s basically left him without cartiledge. Back in ’03 we were told that eventually hip replacement would be the only option, but that we should try to hold out as long as possible because, well, he’s only 43 and hip replacements, as wonderful as they are now, don’t last that long. In 20 yrs it’s VERY conceivable he will need another new hip. Well, my friends, it looks like the eventuality has come. My sweetheart can barely walk. He is in so much pain and I can’t even begin to tell you the sadness I feel about this. I can’t do anything to help him. And trust me, if there was a way I could give him my hips I would. He’s in the process now of going to the doctors and getting diagnoses and I guess we’re looking to try and schedule this for early spring. Please, if you feel compelled to share stories of people you know having had hip replacements – DO NOT TELL ME ABOUT ANYONE THAT’S DIED. We see enough of it on the news about young(ish) people dying and I don’t want to hear it. G has had A LOT of surgery in his life – five knees, his hip, a hernia – and he’s come through with flying colors every time but I’m scared to death.

Add to that all the grief I’ve been letting myself feel lately about the infertility crap and you’ve got a sure fire prescription for MISERY! HAHAHAHAHAHA! That’s all I can do – try to laugh in the face of it! I’m reminded of that line Dolly Parton says in Steel Magnolias – laughter through tears is my favorite emotion? (I think they’re at Julia Robert’s funeral and Olympia Dukakis and Shirley Maclaine have just gotten into the bitch slap thing – Steel Magnolia’s is one of those movies I can’t NOT watch – not matter how icky it makes me feel.) Or some such nonesense as that? I’m not sure if that’s true, but if I can’t laugh, I’ve got nothing.

My peeps out in blogland have been doing their damndest to cheer me up and I finally got around to some pictures!

So you all know how Ann skims right? Seriously – she’s the ULTIMATE skimmer. I’ll be chatting with her on the phone (Ann gives great phone, btw – you know how some people are just not that good on the phone? Not Ann. She rocks. And Margene too. I get on the phone with them and guaranteed it’s like an hour before I get off. In a good way.) and I’ll say something to her and she’ll be like what? And I’ll just stop. Silence. “Ann. Did you read the blog? It’s all on the freaking BLOG!” And she’ll just start laughing because people SHE DOESN’T READ THE BLOGS! She just looks at the pictures or maybe not even that. Ever notice how her comments don’t really seem to have anything to do with what you wrote about that day? No. Well look. She’s a skimmer. Anyway, I’m READING her blog the other day, because I read your blogs, and leave a comment about the availability of Curious George cell phone charms. I had to have one. For obvious reasons.

Welp not ten minutes later the phone rings. It’s Ann. In a panic. She didn’t READ WHAT SHE POSTED! She only skimmed (so really how offended can we be when she skims HER OWN BLOG) and was all upset that I had run off and purchased a Curious George phone charm, because, she confessed, she had already bought me one.

George and my phone have been inseparable ever since. Not sure what the bunny means, but he came along with George and they seem to get along just fine at the bottom of my bag. I love them. If you refer back to the picture above, Ann also sent me a cutie pie frog prince – a talisman – she explained – against frogging our knitting projects. So far so good. There’s a CG bento box and frankly, a kind of scary snowman basket. THANK YOU ANN! Everytime I use the phone I think of you. You make me laugh out loud every time I talk to you and I so love you for that.

A few days after that my very favorite Bookish Girl checked in for the birthday.

Wendy told me that pretty much everything she sent had been purchased at The Bazaar Bizarre – one of those craft extravaganza flea market type thingies – we’ve got beautiful stitch markers, lovely handspun hand-dyed yarn from Woolarina, super cool patches, a denim zip purse, an orange chibi and a SUNFLOWER! To brighten my day. Thank you Wendy! I don’t think I’ve mentioned lately how much I love Wendy. She was one of my first blog friends that I had met in real life – she took me around Boston – a perfect stranger – and we had an instant connection. She’s as real as they come and she makes me laugh and I know if I called her up crying my eyes out she would listen, not judge, and help me. Thank you Wendy. I love you girl!

This is turning into a pretty long post, but it’s making me feel better, so I’m going to keep going.

I’m also pretty good at making myself feel better. I’ve been feeling guilty about all the talk about stashalongs and such and it’s time to admit, that on my birthday, I did what every self-respecting knitter does on their 36th birthday. I ordered a shit load of Alice Starmore’s Virtual Yarn.

Eleven skanks of 3ply Hebridean. For Crossed In Translation swatches. Right now the front runner is Clover, top row, second from the left. I think it will be perfect for this sweater. Perfect. But I can’t start swatching until I finish this:

TREK WINS! She guessed it – these are the sleeves for Short Rows. Back in the day, before it looked like I’d never knit anything other than Jaywalkers, I’d dare say Short Rows was my signature knit. I finished the back (twice!) and the front and left it. All that was needed was the boring navy blue stockinette sleeves and the seaming and a collar. But the sleeves. I couldn’t do it. But I promised myself I would finish this sweater. I’ve worked too hard on it not to finish and I really love it and I hope to see if it fits someday. So I’m not starting the CIT sweater until this is done. I’ve done about ten increases – I’m doing both at the same time, so it’s kind of slow going. My goal is at least one increase a night. There are 16 before you start to decrease for the raglan. Wish me luck.

Thanks everyone for your comments on my yarn yesterday! I’m very excited about my spinning and I’m so glad to share my enthusiasm.

All right. Enough’s enough. I’ve got work to do and I’ve wasted enough of your day. 😉 Thanks for stopping by.
L, C

PS – Please go and see what made me the happiest of happy today! Margene finished her jaywalkers! I swear it was killing me that she wasn’t enjoying these socks – but that doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. POP ROCKS!

Filed Under: Better Pals, Miscellaneous

Sonnylicious

January 16, 2006 By

Okay – who out there watches General Hospital? I mean, I LOVE Sonny. He’s so freaking hot and I love when he’s getting it on with the ladies because generally he’s smiling then and my god the dimples, but EMILY? EWWWWW! I’m so torn here. She’s so annoying and he’s so hot and he’s getting it on so he’s happy and dimply but EMILY? Crap.

Oh and did anyone catch Jack Bauer on Charlie Rose? G’s home from work today and we caught the afternoon repeat and Charlie Rose actually asked Keifer how many episodes they shoot in a season. Best Charlie Rose moment EVER!

Guess I’m in a posting mood today. I can’t guarantee I won’t be back.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Classically Classic

January 16, 2006 By

Found via Bookslut via Bookninja:

“My best neologism is still “douché” — what you say when conceding defeat to an asshole.”

I cannot stop laughing. The most perfect word ever.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

WHOA NELLY!

January 16, 2006 By

Did you see 24 last night?!?! HOLY CRAP! G and I are still talking about LAST season, which we thought was right up there with the first season. And maybe the second. The third was a little weak, but OHMYFUCK! This one is shaping up just fine, and we’re only two hours in! As long as I still got my soul patch, I’m good. G, of course, has the man crush on Jack, but I’m all over Tony A. I’m thinking of getting G one of these t-shirts. What do you think?

As goofy as it all is, it’s kind of nice for both of us to be so excited about something, you know, together. I’ve decided the reason 24 is so satisfying is because it has just enough soap opera for me, and just enough inane unnecessary violence for G. And there’s just enough oh my god that would so never happen in a million years but isn’t it fun to fantasize to keep everyone happy. Thanks Jack! We really need you right now.

In other news, are you a sky watcher? I am!

Facing West, taken around 8:30 this morning off my balcony. Sandy, my love, my hair was extra wild today and the jammies were on and it was FREEZING!

Thanks for all the offers of help with the Jaywalker KAL. I didn’t mean to sound as if I was complaining about the updates, I’m really not, I was just saying that with the amount of people involved, it’s not really feasible to do the funny epic updates I was doing. I really like going through all the blogs – I’ve made some new friends that way, really, and it’s great seeing what everyone is up to. I honestly thought about doing a separate blog for jaywalkers – I’ve already got one set up for CIT, and I’ve been involved in KALs like that before, but I wanted to keep track of this one myself for the giveaway. There are rules I’ve asked participants to comply to in order to be entered in the drawing and I want to be able to keep on top of that. Maybe after Feb 14th I’ll set up another blog, but for now, I’m good. Thanks again though for all the suggestions.

I’ve had a pretty productive weekend, including a nice outing with Jen yesterday, replete with KILLER BIRDS, but that’s for tomorrow’s post. (Jen, thank god you were there – I don’t think ANYONE would believe me if you hadn’t been there. It really happened right?) In the meantime, I can’t stop giving stuff away.

Be the FIRST to identify, in the comments, what I’ve been knitting this weekend (pictured above) EXACTLY, and I will send you a skank of Prove It All Night Socks That Rock and an orange chibi. Leave your guesses in the comments. And if I TOLD (or emailed you) about it, you are NOT ELIGIBLE. Oh yeah and here’s a clue. It’s NOT a jaywalker.

Filed Under: Contest, Miscellaneous

HELP WANTED: WEB DESIGNER/DEVELOPER

January 7, 2006 By

G and I went out to dinner last night and I was talking about all the things I need to do with my business. I was telling him that I could probably do it myself, but it would take forever and I’d have to learn all new things and my time is better spent elsewhere – and he said why don’t you hire someone to help you!

So. I thought I’d come to you all first.

This is what I need: I need someone to help me with the hard coding – we can work together on the design – I need some shopping cart functionality – some flash, maybe, but not a necessity, I need it to be relatively easy for me to upkeep myself. I can code HTML, but that’s about it.

These are the websites I’d like to upgrade:
CDC Photography
PhotoArtCards

They were both built entirely by me. Pretty good, but I need better. Ideally I’d love to give this job to a knitblogger! I know you guys are out there – working away on your blogs while you’re not knitting. Or may you’re a web designer/developer by day and a knitter by night? I don’t have a lot of money to pay you – but I have A LOT of yarn (money + yarn = good, no?)

If you’re interested in maybe working together, email me at s2 AT januaryone DOT com. In the email, please give me an link to some of your work, as well as your blog. If you don’t have a blog, well, tell me what you knit last. 😉

Thank you so much.

ETA: I’m an ASS and accidentally erased the emails I’ve received so far. If you’re still interested, would you be kind of enough to resend your information? Pretty please? Thank you so much!

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

One of these boxes is not like the other

December 28, 2005 By

Because one of these boxes will be opened today! (Or is it already?) Happy Birthday To ME!!!!!!

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Tis Better To Give Than Receive

December 20, 2005 By


That big box of STR stash in the background – sorry – that’s MINE!

Do I owe you something? Chances are it’s going out today. And a few other goodies to some of you out there that you might not know about. I don’t send gifts to anyone in my family, but to KNITTERS? Gifts galore. This is THE FASTEST I will be getting out contest winnings! YAY! In fact today’s winner might just get a package before [insert whatever freaking winter holiday you want right here thank you very much] starts. Unless, of course, we’re celebrating Solstice, and well, then, I’m late. But Happy or Merry or [insert whatever jolly freaking word you want right here thank you very much] Solstice! And the winner is….

MANISE!

Sadly, Manise is blogless (maybe that should be in the package too?), but she wins nonetheless! Here are the possible winning answers, in case you’re curious:

“Dancing with Jesus in Grove City, Pennsylvania,” High Plains Literary Review, Fall/Winter 2001

“The BBC,” Fourteen Hills, Spring/Summer 2002 (also published in New Standards: The First Decade of Fiction at Fourteen Hills)

“The Summer My Mother Grew Up,” Other Voices, Fall/Winter 2002

“What You Wish For,” Green Hills Literary Lantern, 2003

There you have it. Oh and I published an interview with Charles Baxter about William Maxwell in Washington Square. You can read it here, if you’d like. That didn’t count though, because even though it’s about fiction, it’s not fiction.

A little bit harder, wasn’t it? I guess so because I got half the entries I received for the other two. Next week will be hard(er) as well, but I might make it easy again for the grand finale package on Dec 31. Let me tell you – as good as the others have been (and next week is really fine!), the last one is SPECTACULAR! And very special to me. Gotta admit though, this question was kind of depressing. Three years practically since my last story came out? Fuck. Not a good feeling. Resolution anyone?

T Minus 12 Days and Counting

I’ll have you know, that you can’t open this package from the bottom because it will destroy the box. It’s one of those open from the top tuck the sides in kind of boxes. I know this because it’s actually a box I sent to Margene! She turned it around right back to me. Good thinking M! But here’s proof anyway:

See the headline? The MTA is on strike in NYC. I’m very torn on this issue. All of my dealings with unions have been very bad. I worked in a union shop in college and the union rep for my department was borderline abusive to those of us who really didn’t want to get involved. I was eighteen and in college and honestly, because of that union, I was overpaid by A LOT. Which I guess was good, but I would’ve rather been paid a smaller wage and not been harassed. I really feel for all the workers out there – MTA workers and anyone else trying to get to work today. I cancelled a haircut appointment, but that’s inconsequential to the fact that my husband had to walk a good distance to work from the NJ train (which, yes, he’s lucky he could take) but it’s very cold and his hip is bad. He doesn’t need the aggravation. And I have to believe this isn’t what the MTA workers want. They’re losing money and they’re losing the good will of the people. I’m suprised the strike happened, but after seeing the mayor this morning on TV, I don’t think this will end quickly. Pissed doesn’t even begin to describe the anger I read on his face.

So if you’re in NYC, I hope you had an easy time of it today. The idea that the subways and buses are quiet is just too weird to comprehend.

I’m off to finish the packages. And there’s still more work stuff too. Have a great day!

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Thundercrack!

November 28, 2005 By

baby’s back.
This time she’ll tell me how she really feels.

This post will have something for everyone! Consider it Random Wednesday. Only it’s Monday.

As I mentioned on Friday, Thanksgiving went really well. The food was great, company better and it all went off without incident. Except for the fact that my sister got a cold Wednesday night and felt miserable all day Thursday, it couldn’t have gone better. My contribution (besides watching the kids off and on all day to keep them out of their mom’s hair and vaccuuming) was a salad. I modeled it after my favorite salad of all time from Gigino’s in NYC. It’s the Peperina salad and I made it with mixed baby lettuces, shaved pear, shaved parmesan, pecans (I thought they used pecans, but I guess they use walnuts) and pomegranate seeds sprinkled with white balsamic vinegar. I was really pleased with how it came out and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

I’ve got no pictures of the kids because I didn’t take my camera with me. I know. Blasphemy. But I’m sick of taking pictures and I’d just download them to the computer and they would sit there. Besides this was a break from photography work and it worked because yesterday I got A LOT of work done and I’m feeling like I’m back on track. At least a little bit. But I got a lot of cuddle time with the kids and they got their new bunk beds which was a trip in and of itself. My nephew ended up sleeping on the bottom bunk and my niece slept with me on the floor. The baby is big as can be – if I could only show you his monster thighs – but he’s so much fun! He giggles nonstop and just smiles so sweet and he’s such a cuddler. This is definitely one of my favorite ages. They’re still babies, but they can engage you in that wide eyed wonderful way. All you have to do is smile and his whole face lights up. I miss them.

She moves up, she moves back
Out on the floor there just is no one cleaner
She does this thing she calls the “Jump back Jack”

I hit the mail jackpot on Friday. Georgie was particularly impressed. I always call him to find out about the mail when I’m away and his standard reply is junk junk and more junk. This time HE called ME. There were lots of lovely thank you cards from all those boxes I sent out the other day – so sweet! An email is plenty, but a card? In the mail? For me? I was really touched. Thank YOU! Vicki‘s card was my favorite – check out this knitted thank you:

I tried to find the card on the artist’s website, but it wasn’t there. Hey Vicki! Where’d you get the card? It’s SO LaPierre!

But what really impressed Georgie was the package from Hong Kong. I got my Crossed In Translation book! Yay! The book is really beautiful – think Rowan meets the House of the Rising Sun. And the freaking pattern is TWO pages. Lucky for us, knitalongers, there’s barely any words to go along with the pattern. It’s all charts and schematics. We should be able to figure this out no problem, right? G-Love thinks I’ve completely lost it. He may be right.

Oh and rest assured, seeing the sweater in it’s native language has only made me love it more.

She slips, she slides, she slops, she bops, she bumps, she grinds

Now if only I could stop making socks:


Kaci – this pictures for you! Mwah!


I finished one…


and started another!

For all you Jaywalkers out there, I’m planning on doing an FAQ for this Friday’s update. So if you have questions – let me know in the comments, or in an email. And don’t forget you can always email me or Kathy (who, by the way, is an inspiration to me! First Jaywalker, and now Grumpecue! Kathy, you’re killing me!) Basically everyone seems to have similar issues, so we’ll address them this week. Namely gauge and the bar increases (yes – the holes are supposed to be there! It’s a design thing! 😉 ) But if you’ve got other questions, let me know.

My heart’s wood, she’s a carpenter
She’s an angel in the night, what she does is alright

As much as I love my socks, I’m sort of getting frustrated with myself. It’s like I can’t knit ANYTHING else. I think about all these projects I want to knit – mittens, finish my gloves, work on the Prairie Blanket. I just can’t seem to concentrate. I’m trying to go with the flow like Margene says, but I’m antsy. And this doesn’t just relate to my knitting either – when’s the last time I read a book? Can someone tell me please? How pathetic is that?

We’re not going to even discuss the fact that I just got off the phone with the embryo people – I was late on my payment to keep those totsicles frozen. When’s that shrink appointment again?

Dance with me, partner, dance with me, partner
Dance with me, partner, all night

If you’ve got the DVD, make sure you watch the supplemental material on documentary disc. I can’t stop watching Thundercrack. Over and over and over again. It’s simply stunning. D
O IT! WATCH IT NOW! You can thank me later.

Filed Under: Carbon Jaywalkers, CIT KAL, Hard Rock Socks, Miscellaneous, Socks

Crap Crap Crap

November 15, 2005 By

Don’t you just love it that as early as 10:30 AM you can already have a crappy day? That’s right. I spent 45 minutes this morning dodging traffic jams. I’d get out of one and come up on another. All within about five miles from my house. And it wasn’t the usual commuter traffic either – there were like 47 accidents – something weird is going on out there. Be careful.

And now I just found out I have to go out again. G left something at home – an important something – for a meeting – and I need to bring it to him. Generally I wouldn’t mind. He’s working his ass off too and he was working late last night and forgot it – I’m glad I remembered to ask about it (since I ran my desk chair over it this morning) but I had my day planned out down to the minute for maximum efficiency and it was GONE TO CRAP by about 8:15 this morning. It’s beginning to feel like every minute that goes by I lose another hour. Know what I mean?

Two-fold evidence: A) I worked hard yesterday; and B) I can take a crappy crappy picture.

That’s eleven packages – I think it’s eleven – all ready to ship. If I owe you something, it’s in the mail. (Well all except Janet and Wendy – it’s coming. Don’t worry.) There were actually a couple of more packages, but this is all the knitting related stuff. AND I managed to finish up two jobs that were sent off to the printer last night. Aah. Productivity. AND I joined the fingers onto my Nona’s Serial Gloves. I’m still a little bit iffy about the joins – there are holes, but Margene says that’s okay, so it’s okay. I’ll darn them, darnit. I also cast on a new sock. For me. Because I don’t have enough shit to do ( the Cotton Candy STR was calling out to me) but then I ripped it because something weird happened. I think I dropped a stitch or something, but I need to investigate more what I want to do with this yarn. It’s a sock for sure – a nice long one – but I need some calf shaping strategies.

And I don’t understand why the Harry Potter freaks get all the special treatment. I preordered my 30th Anniversary Special SUPER FUCKING FANTASTIC OH MY GOD I’M DYING HERE Commerative Edition of Born To Run a MONTH ago and it came out today and Amazon’s all like it’ll arrive some time next week. WHAT? Aren’t mailpeople running around knocking on doors at midnight so all the little Harry Potter fanatics can get the book the second it’s allowed? And I HAVE TO WAIT FOR MY BRUCE?!?!? No matter. I was at Best Buy this morning at 9:15 (I would’ve been there at 9AM, but I was stuck in traffic) to pick up a copy. There ain’t no way no how I’m waiting for that shit. And of course, Amazon won’t let me cancel the order either. Fuckers.

I would love to talk about Bruce – it was my intention today to talk about the love and the love and the music and the love, but I’m in a crappy mood. So maybe later. Hope YOUR day is a good one.

PS – In my defence about the crappy shitty picture, I didn’t use the real camera. I thought – eh – I’ll use the stupid crappy point and shoot – these are the pictures it’s meant for – little did I know it takes CRAP PICTURES! Note to self: take the extra five minutes and pull out the real camera if you don’t want to be pissed off.

PPS – And while this may sound like I’m backtracking – the camera doesn’t MAKE A PICTURE. It’s the PHOTOGRAPHER that makes a picture with the control you have with the camera. If I had read the fucking manual on the P&S like I’m always preaching about, I would’ve had more control as to how the picture came out. But I didn’t. So it was on Auto, which gave me a crappy picture. I’m a manual kind of girl – complete control at all times. That way you have no one to blame but yourself. 😉

Filed Under: Miscellaneous
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