Cool Little Diversion

Get your own

So, I can't think of a title

Well Tuesday WAS better than Monday, mostly because I slept through half of it =) You see I'm in that in between place where you feel like you are coming down with something. Something that you never quite come down with, but you don't quite get better either. It's annoying, but manageable. It would be MORE manageable if I would STOP waking up at 4 and 5 am and not being able to go back to sleep. (Another reason I slept half of Tuesday and every other morning thereafter) I mean....WHAT GIVES?! It IS better than the sort of thing I was doing before, not sleeping at ALL, but it still messes with my days.

At least the TV shows this week have been good. Did anyone else see Pushing Daisies? It's SO twisted but we were laughing our butts off and still laughing about it a couple of hours later. Anyway, the reason I mention TV shows is... I got on a roll during Journey Man and then Grey's Anatomy and I was able to finish it today! yaay me an FO! whooo hoooo!

You'll have to forgive me for not modeling these woolly things in 90 degree heat (with legs that need a bit of maintenance with a razor - you REALLY didn't want to know that, did you?) I tried putting one on and I just said, "NOPE, I'll be taking these pictures in the grass."

I'll be glad when/if Fall ever shows up here. It's SO not fair for it to still be in the 90's!

In spite of the heat, I cast on for my second pair of Soctoberfest socks today. I'm using a bamboo yarn, mainly because of the heat and I've been wanting a pair of bamboo socks since I was told they help keep your feet from being achy.
(I'll let you know if that's truth or fiction someday)

There is a bit of a complication though, but I don't really think I can do anything about it. You see one of these sides is not like the other. The sock faintly stripes in a very light turquoise and lavender.

AND the other side is solid blue.

Now I'm sure when this yarn was dyed, it wasn't meant to do this. It's weird and there is no real hope for there to be a shift in the colors. The needles I'm using are just the right size for this project, so I don't want to change that. If I make the sock bigger, I think it'll be too big for me.

I'm not really thinking of frogging because it feels like a really nice fabric.

So I guess I'm going to have a pair of socks that is one color coming and a different one going.

I can deal with that, I'm JUST weird enough to pull it off.


On a completely different note. Have you ever had something you desperately wanted to blog about but couldn't? It's not a comfortable feeling for me. It's nothing scary or anything, I just can't do it here, and for some reason, journaling in my regular journal just doesn't give me that unloaded feeling that blogging does.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there for some reason.

Wanna see a bunny rabbit? He was in my flower garden a few weeks ago. How cute is that little face?

AY YI YI

WHAT a day! (Monday) Right off the bat the car wouldn't start. Jumped off with help of hubby and away we went. Then it was back home after taking DD to school. A little later I made appointments for 2 out of 3 of my kiddos with the pediatrician. DS1 has a very long lasting cough and some other issues I needed to talk to him about. DD had earaches in both ears. So.. when the time came, I jumped back in the car and OF COURSE it wouldn't start again, and this time it wouldn't even jump off. SO I had to quickly rearrange all the car seats because I had to go to two different schools to pick the kids up for their appointments. Thank GOODNESS I was planning to be SO early, or I would have totally blown it. Did I mention that it is STILL SO HOT here? UG! So I'm all sweaty and wet at the school waiting FOREVER for them to bring me my child. We were only about 10 minutes late for the appointment, even though I started nearly an hour ahead of that time.

It's the first day of Socktoberfest and I didn't get to knit a stitch, yet. There may still be hope, but I may be too worn out, too. Did I also mention that the kids were doing that seriously trying my patience thing. Fighting screaming whining. ACK

OK! Well now... I'm going to go chill (if I can ever get this little person here to go to bed - STILL trying my patience)

Goodnight

Tuesdays are always better than Mondays, right?

Evidence That I Still Knit

Exhibit A - One nearly complete pair of socks

Well, there's no Exhibit B, so this will have to do. I have pretty much always been a one project knitter, and I guess that hasn't changed. Hey there's one thing about me that is the same. I know it's weird in the knitting community not to have dozens of projects on the needles at once, but the reality of that just stresses me out. (not sure why)

I'm getting in the habit of avoiding things that stress me out, for obvious reasons. lol None of us in here or out there need any sort of repeat of the events in the Spring (or those of the Winter for that matter) HEY! I got through a whole SEASON without freaking out (or whatever they call it in the professional community) I called it spinning out before, that's a pretty good description. Every day I think about some aspect of that process and wonder.... "Why did I think I was ok?" Funny how that works. When you are, well, I should say, when I am, in the throes or grip of the spinning, I feel fine. I think that's what makes it scary because I can't tell I'm off, even though everyone else can. A few days before I totally hit the fan, someone had told my husband to get me help like NOW. (I bet he wishes he had)

At least now, I don't feel ok, I do feel off, and I am aware of the weirdness within. (for lack of a better explanation) I shouldn't say, I don't feel ok, I am feeling better than I have. I can just tell I'm no where near finished healing. I can tell because I'm still really tired and I still need more sleep than I can get in 8 hours at night. My motivation is low, but I can manage the basics. Even the basics were a great challenge when I was really low. I'm back to auto pilot on most of the basics, which feels better. My sister suggested something helpful yesterday. Basically, just write down one or two things you want to accomplish that day, and then when you do them, you can see what you accomplished. I didn't write it down yet, but I did do the 2 things I was wanting to accomplish, so that feels better, anyway.

And now, I have a little less than an hour before the house starts to fill up grade schoolers. All three of them, I bring home my niece on Thursdays to play with my daughter. SO... I'm going to catch a little cat nap in preparation =)

I Totally Caved

Caved in to peer pressure. I'm not proud, but I was tired of fighting it. Everyone else is doing it. And somewhere in the distance I hear a voice say, "Well if everyone was jumping off a cliff, would you do it, too?" I guess the answer to that is... "It depends on what's over that cliff." I actually HAVE jumped off a cliff before, into a coldly delicious mountain lake, in the heat of Summer. Also, if you think about it, if EVERYONE was jumping over a cliff, that would include the person asking me the loaded question and if I was the only person on Earth after everyone had jumped off a cliff... how lonely would that be? So I'd probably go ahead and jump. Of course the thing that I caved about this time has nothing to do with cliffs. I couldn't take it anymore, all the chatter and links about Ravelry. I AM determined not to go TOO overboard when I EVENTUALLY get in, but, I would like to be able to see the stuff that people have posted in there. Like when they say, "Check out this FO in Ravelry!" So if only to do that....? I now hear a faint voice saying, "Yeah, RIGHT! You wish you could use it only for that, you'll be a full blown Ravelry Head in no time, dearie."

Well, I don't really have to worry about that any time soon - check out my stats! lol

• You signed up on Today
• You are #35649 on the list.
• 18291 people are ahead of you in line.
• 1 people are behind you in line.
• 48% of the list has been invited so far

Yep, over EIGHTEEN THOUSAND fiber fiends ahead of me. That is a pretty big number. I wonder how many are already in there? I wonder what the total number of knitters/crocheters would look like? Just in the time it's taken me to type this, there are now 4 people behind me in line. WOW - I wasn't the last lemming after all. (and before anyone gets all technical with me about lemmings - please don't, I have a headache)

I have no photographic evidence, but I'm quickly getting close to the toe on my second sock. Another interesting development. It seems I no longer dread the heel flap and picking up the gusset stitches. Maybe that means I'm a grown up sock knitter! I had tried to switch to short row heels, but it just doesn't work for my deep foot. Now I need to try the reverse heel flap thing on a toe up sock. But I'll save that endeavor for another time.

Hey! Anyone else excited about Socktoberfest? Yippeee Skippeee! I can't believe this will already be the 3rd one. Sheesh! The very first Socktoberfest spurred me on to knit socks for real, because I was scared to try them. Now they are like the easiest projects ever. I wonder if there are going to be new buttons this year?

....and now there are 8 people behind me in line, hehehehe. The other number isn't going down at the same rate, though!

OH yeah, another nerdy thing I've been doing lately. Watching my stats. I love seeing the different countries that pop up. I was going to post a pic of the breakdown of those stats, but my camera needs a charge. Oh well.

....and now 21! Wow there are lots of us, aren't there?

O Canada!

It's so weird, everywhere I turn these days I'm seeing Canada. I had half ways lazy weekend that felt wonderful. So I watched a bunch of movies, random stuff, whatever was on. The movies on Saturday were Canadian movies. Then I watched a DVD, and it was made in Canada, too. Tonight, I watched one, that was admittedly terrible and too long, but the main characters end up in Nova Scotia. So wherever I turn it's Toronto, Vancouver, Nova Scotia and now... Sunnydale. Why Sunnydale? I just found out that my great grandmother was born there. I'm CANADIAN! hahaha sorta, right?

The past couple of years I've been feeling this odd pull, it's almost painful. I really want to go to Canada. I wish it was possible in the near future, but it just isn't. I had even asked my dad if any of his people came from Canada, because it really seemed like I missed it somehow. I should have asked my mom about her people I guess, of course she may not even know it. This particular grandmother was an awesome knitter, too. So I am descended from a (Irish) Canadian KNITTER! The great granddad was from Minnesota, which is where I, and nearly all my relatives, were born.

It may be silly, but it's such a relief to me for some reason. I guess I've been mentally searching for an explanation of why I have such a thing for Canada (and Canadians) since I first asked that question. (I'm weird like that, I keep telling myself to stop asking so many questions, but it's not working) Anyway, I just wanted to share that with y'all because it made me so giddy! =)

PS - I'm just a few rounds from the heel flap on sock number 2, I should have an update on it pretty quickly. The pooling is doing basically the same thing, except in the other direction. I'm not sure how I managed that on accident, unless I wound the first ball from the wrong side of the skein. That must be what happened. I balled some of the skein on my cruise, and the bit of skein I had left, I must have wound from the end of the skein instead of winding from the piece I left off. (See there I go asking questions that I have to also answer.) Anyway, so far so good. And I have felt SO good the last couple of days that I nearly recognize myself! I actually FELT like cleaning yesterday instead of having to totally force myself to do it. It may not sound like much, but if you had seen me last week.... you'd know what a difference that is! yaay!

PPS - If I wasn't already married, I'd marry Canada.

One Down One Started

I finally sat down and did the toe and kitchener! (about a week or so, ago) I'm really happy with the fit and mostly happy with how it looks. (in spite of the odd pooling thing it did) I'm hoping that the second sock looks something like the first =) If not, it doesn't matter that much.

I've started the second sock, I'm about 4 rounds into the cuff. It took me until yesterday to start it. The idea of sitting in a waiting room can make even the most stubborn case of SSS take a back seat.

I was looking at it the other day and I noticed that the ribbing on the inside of the sock looks much nicer than the ribbing on the outside. Does this mean I have tighter tension on my purl stitches than I do on my knit stitches? VERY interesting. Not interesting enough to make me purl every round, but interesting nonetheless.

I didn't have much left in the ball I was using, this is all there was left. Of course I have about 3 more balls, because I made a separate ball every time there was a knot, so that I would know how much yarn there was between breaks. No false sense of security.

As for me and my continuing saga of downs and further down, I had a down week last week, but I seem to be coming out of this week. It sort of feels like I'm climbing a hill. I can only get about halfway up the hill, before sliding back down. I can't seem to top the hill to get past whatever this obstacle is. So that's what I'm working towards now. I could use some positive vibes or whatever you call it. =) I know it really helps. Thanks everyone!

Hopefully I'll have some progress to show in a day or two.