Saturday, June 2, 2007

Happy Birthday Dustin!

Today is Dustin's 26th birthday.

Happy, Happy Birthday. You have given me so much joy, humor, love, and appreciation for beauty. I love you dearly.

Tate is hosting a party for Dustin tonight at her loft. Dustin wants everyone to wear togas, paint their skin gold and wear fruit on their heads. Be careful tonight, kids. No driving.


I've hit a few bumps in the road over the last few days, which has left me distracted. I couldn't sit still to knit, but I've managed to clean the house and get laundry done. I've even tidied my office. It's been sunny most of the day. Good thing, I was getting sick of the rain.

Here is the progress of the Kureyon striped scarf.





I love the colors in this one. I think Dustin would actually like this one more than the Silk Garden. I'll let him choose. The only thing is that the Kureyon is scratchy.

Tonight, we are having stuffed peppers for dinner. I make them with barley, ground buffalo, pine nuts, sauteed mushrooms, garlic, parsley and chopped green olives. All served with a spicy tomato sauce. Sam's going to try smoking them. Should be yummy.

The part for the RO water filter arrived. Sam has installed it and it is running. I'm glad I won't have to haul those gallon jugs around anymore. I brought a gallon in last night and unbeknownst to me it has a small hole in it. So, it leaked water all night on the countertop, soaking my mail and dripping all over the floor. Bummer.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Another one bites the dust

I finished the Fetching glovelets today. I lost the yarn label a long time ago. I love the color. I'm not sure if I will post a picture or not. There are a few mistakes. Besides, the weather has been really rainy. I'll have to wait until the sun shines again to be able to take a decent picture. As I was finishing, I started thinking of casting on for another pair of glovelets. Silly me. I had to remind myself that I want to complete the backlog of UFOs.



Here is a picture of the Silk Garden Striped Scarf for Dustin.


Sam wakes up incredibly early to go to work and then comes home about a half hour before I'm done with work. After he chills out for a bit, he likes to take a nap. I have decided that this will be the time when I work on finishing up the UFOs. At first it's hard for me to figure out where I am in the pattern. But, once I get going, it's great.


I managed to run outside between rain storms the other day and take a shot of the Noro Kureyon yarn for Caitlin's Kureyon Striped Scarf. It's so crazy here in the Midwest. Raining like hell one minute, and then sunny the next.














I'm not sure which of the many UFO's I'll concentrate on next. Maybe the Hyde Park Pullover.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Stick a fork in it.

The Noro Silk Garden scarf is completed. And in time for Dustin's birthday. I'm going to add some fringe. Pictures to come.

I blocked the sleeves for the Chanel-ish Cardigan Jacket and sewed one shoulder. I think the set-in sleeves are going to kick my ass.

I was so pleased with the Noro Silk Garden scarf that I wound four balls of Noro Kureyon for another scarf. Probably for Caitlin. It's a mindless knit, and the results are superb. I'll post some picks of the yarn later.

Tattoos and Poop

Three out of four of my children have tattoos.

Caitlin has several beautiful Ginkgo leaves falling down her shoulder. This is coincidental because I have been planting trees in my yard to symbolize my children since they moved out. Three years ago I planted a Ginkgo to symbolize Caitlin. And then she came home to show me her thoughtful tattoo. And it is so Caitlin.

Tate has a white tattoo. A perfect circle over her heart. The size of a jelly jar. It peaks out of her shirt and the white line is no larger than a fine point of a Sharpee pen. It is beautiful, too.

John. Oh my Jesus god John. John has horrific tattoos that cover his entire back. I shit Flintstone’s Vitamins when I saw it. Complete with two scary clown heads, a KC Royals insignia and his last name in Roman letters. I about died. All I thought about was, “Try to explain that when you are at the public kiddies pool with your children.” Of course, John at almost 22 hasn’t thought about that. He works as a mason's assistant in construction and is all buff, tan and blond. I'm pretty sure all he is thinking about now are girls.

Only Dustin, the one who is most likely to have a tattoo, doesn’t have one. On Thursday, when Tate and I were hanging out, she called Dustin to inform him that she was going to get another tattoo. And to see if he wanted to get one. Like buying shoes or something.

When I met David, my former husband, I told him I wanted a tiny (less than a half of an inch) tattoo on my rear end. And he said, “Do you want some old greasy fuck to be less than an inch away from your ass for an hour?” So, I chickened out. I did not want to have an old greasy fuck poised over my ass for an hour.

Lately, I’ve been thinking of getting a tattoo. After the rash of crap I’ve given my kids, it would be hilarious. And I would certainly have to hide it. After all, I had an A Number One SHIT FIT each time I found out about my kids’ tattoos.


Tate told me that it was passé to get a tattoo on your ankle. That it wasn’t even the true experience of getting a tattoo because the tattoo artist was not close to your body at all. So if I got one, I'd get a scarab tattoo on my back. I’ve always loved the scarab. As girl, my mother gave me several scarab bracelets, which I love very much to this day. In reality the scarab is also called the dung beetle. A symbol of renewal and used for protection. The emerald green scarab is seen pushing a golden ball of dung in ancient Egyptian depictions. The Egyptians used the scarab as a symbol for the god Khepri, which means to come into being. Khepri was the self-creator. Amulets of scarabs were also buried with the ancient Egyptians as protection. The beetle rolls a ball of fresh dung and buries it. The female will lay her eggs in it, and then later the baby beetles emerge from the ground as if from nowhere.

Anyone who knows me knows I despise bugs. On the other hand, poop is a completely different story. I have friends and acquaintances that keep telling me that poop is not funny.

Oh, but it is.

Poop jokes have been the mainstay of my first family for years. I still love poop jokes. A couple of years ago my mother muttered under her breath “I always thought you kids would grow tired of the Poop jokes. I guess not.”

Lately, since I work form home, most of my communication with my co-workers is through an internal chat tool. When a co-worker does not reply to me in a timely manner, I usually respond with “Were you pooping?”

Or one of my favorites: when you call someone and they answer their phone, just say “Are you done pooping?” Always good for a laugh. Credit to this one goes to Janut. The poop jokes go on and on. My cousin, Bruce, told me about http://www.doodie.com/anger_management.php. While this part of the site isn't about poop, the rest of the site is dedicated to bathroom humor.

The scarab would remind me that as I push my ball of crap along each day just to take the time to create something.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Knitting completed!

I finished the second sleeve of the Chanel-ish Cardigan Jacket for Tate. I was nervous that I wouldn’t have enough of the grey yarn. Here is how much yarn I have left:
The jacket gets a crochet edge trim. So, I’m not sure if I will have enough of the grey for that. But, I was relieved that all of the same dye lot has been used for the entire sweater. I’ll probably order some more, just to be certain.

The second spaz I had was when I soaked the body of the sweater in the sink with some Top of the Lamb shampoo. When I rung the sweater out in a clean towel and pulled the sweater out, it seemed HUGE. Heart racing, I ran downstairs and threw it in the dryer with a clean towel on Hot. After a few minutes of feeling heartsick, I pulled it from the dryer and laid it on the spare bed to survey the damage. The width was spot on. It just seemed gigantic when I first looked at it.

So, I gathered my stuff to block the body of the sweater. The cats were sleeping, as usual. Because I didn’t want any “assistance” I closed the door while I grabbed my tools. I had to get one more thing and absent-mindedly left the door open for just a few seconds. I returned to Boy picking the pins off of the magnetic pin holder and tossing them on the floor. Thanks for the help, Boy.
So, I got the body of the sweater blocked. I don’t have room for the sleeves, so after the body dries I’ll block the sleeves. These are set-in sleeves. A first for me. So, I’ve been reading about setting in sleeves in Sally Melville’s “The Purl Stitch” and general finishing techniques in Janet Szabo’s “The ‘I Hate to Finish Sweaters' Guide to Finishing Sweaters.” I also got the two DVDs “Knitting Essentials” by Lucy Neatby for Christmas a couple of years ago.

I’m looking forward to learning to do a better job of finishing. One of my goals is to be terrific at finishing. This sweater will be a big challenge for me.

I had the pleasure of meeting Sally Melville last month. She taught a class at The Yarn Barn. She was wonderful. So patient. She brought in the huge trunk of all the sweaters in her “The Knitting Experience” series. I also met Lucy Neatby a few summers ago. The knitting guild in our area had her in for a weekend of classes. She was very charming and was also a good teacher. I love the lilt of her accent.

Our weekly family dinner has been scheduled for Monday night, so more people can attend. So, I have a brisket in the oven for dinner tonight. I’ll serve mashed cauliflower and some other vegetable with it. Maybe I’ll make my world famous Cole Slaw.