Chart Hell

I had gotten about half way through the first pattern repeat of Koolhaas, when I realized that I misread the chart. Blast! So, I've frogged it completely. I'll figure out charts this year if it kills me. It can't be that hard.
I didn't knit at all last night, but spent the evening in the kitchen. We made Eggplant Parmigiana. Tonight, it's Pollo al Diavolo. Yes, I'm dabbling around in my new copy of Molto Italiano. It is served with a simple parsley salad.
One of my friends at work feeds fresh veggies to her dogs along with the dry food each day. For the past week or so, I've been adding steamed vegetables and small amounts of fresh fruit to their dry food. I thought maybe it would take a little weight off of the Beagle. At first, she didn't like it, but now they both go for the fresh food first. And I've noticed that the Beagle isn't wolfing her food down.
I'll get the ribbing done on Koolhaas tonight and work on Lady Eleanor.
I've caught Sam's cold. Damn it.

With a side of stress

I spent the majority of last night in the ER with my Mom. I got home in the wee hours of the morning, so I took today off. I was afraid the the Alligator Puppy wouldn't let me sleep. But, she was great. She was content to sleep in her exercise pen with her lovie until late in the morning.
I got to watch hours and hours of awful late night television with my Mom. She made some particularly funny remarks about the erectile dysfunction medication commercials. "Look at the way the women look at the men!" "Now they are sitting in two tubs staring at the sun? How stupid is that?" And then we watched some lengthy infomercial for Mineral Makeup. "Well, of course the 'before' looks bad. They aren't even smiling." I brought my knitting to the ER, but was too tired and stressed out to knit. Ditto this morning. I felt like I had been beaten all over with a ball peen hammer. Later on, I decided to treat myself by casting on for Koolhaas using Malibrigo. I love, love, love this yarn. It's sooo soft. Maybe one day I can make an entire sweater out of this yarn for me. It's such yummy yarn.
Oh, I ended up getting one of the techno-spindles from my sister! It just arrived late. I'm so happy about that. Next, I will take a spinning lesson from the Cottage Fiber Studio.
We found a Chinese restaurant that delivers. Tonight, we will order from them. I plan on taking it easy and going to bed early.

Kick-Ass Clown Feet

Sometimes when I get the urge to cast on for a new project, it makes me feel good to wind yarn. Here is the Spunky Eclectic sock yarn for December of '07 that I wound up. My son, Dustin, will chide me saying, "Don't be afraid of color." Holy cow this is bright yarn. I think I'll call it Circus because it makes me think of the colorful clowns jumping and hollering.

I have a friend who is very shy. But, she always wears kick-ass wild shoes. She says that's her way of being outgoing. And she can always tuck her feet under her desk if she feels shy. This is definitely kick-ass wild colored yarn. But, I'm not the kind of gal that would hide something kick-ass.

I'm not sure if I'll make the socks for me or use it to make a pair of socks for Dustin. Although he appreciates hand made things, he's not the best at keeping the things I make him. They end up getting lost. So, it's hard for me to rationalize spending many hours on something that will be left carelessly behind. Bad knitting Karma, in my opinion

The weather has warmed up enough to finally melt the block of ice that was my back yard. Now it is a mud pit. And Piddles returns from her outings drenched in mud. I'm on my third load of towels that I've used to clean up the Trusty Beagle and the wiggly Alligator Puppy.

Good news: my Mom has been released from the hospital.

Hospital Knitting

My Mom has been in the hospital since Thursday. She went to the doc for extreme shortness of breath and was admitted to the hospital for tests. They found that she has esophagitis and is losing blood. She also has extreme anemia. The oxygen level was very low in her blood, which caused the shortness of breath. She's had four blood transfusions. Thankfully, the esphagitis can be treated with medication. However, while she has been in the hospital she contracted a lung infection and is now on antibiotics and breathing treatments.

I've been bringing the Lady Eleanor Wrap with me. And I'm almost 50% finished.

Hopefully, she will be released tomorrow. Next month, she will be 88 years old. But, because she was born on February 29th, she will really only be 22 years old.

Fearless Knitting

Okay, so I've been knitting for a while now. But I'm still intimidated by techniques or patterns. This year, I'd like to try some new techniques and tackle at least one pattern that scares me.
Here are just some of the patterns or techniques that intimidate me:

• Charlotte's Web Shawl. I bought a custom blend of yarn for this. The shawl is stunning. I'm totally intimidated by lace and chart reading.
• The Rogue Sweater. Look at those bad cables. There is even a Wiki page for this sweater.
• Clapotis. I have the yarn to make two of these. I started it once and I couldn't get the pattern. Maybe I'm a tard.
• The Brioche Stitch.

I spoke with a LYS owner about Charlotte's Web and she said chart reading was a breeze and she would help me. For free. She had the same "Oh it's no big deal" manner that I have when I'm showing one of my friends a new technique. It still happens to me, too. Something looks too complicated and I don't have the confidence to try it.

So, maybe that's another thing I will tackle this year. One of my knitting fears. Cables, chart reading, or the Brioche Stitch.

I'm off to make a couple of trays of chicken enchiladas. One for me and one for my daughter. Her BF got roughed up leaving a bar this weekend. I thought it would be nice that they wouldn't have to mess with dinner.

2008

It's finally here. The election year and the year I take my second sabbatical. Yippee.

Making New Year's Resolutions was something that didn't interest me for years. But, in recent years I've made some simple attainable resolutions that have turned into habits. So, here are my resolutions for 2008:


1) Throw out, give away or donate 5 things from my scary attic and basement each week.
2) Get out and walk. Shoot for every day. No dogs.
3) Work in the yard at least once each week.
4) Learn to spin.


I will receive my annual company bonus in February. I've probably spent it three times over in my head. I'm toying with joining a CSA, but I think the money would be better spent on reflooring my family room. I wish I could do both, but some of that money is ear-marked to buy a plane ticket to visit Caitlin in Victoria B.C. when she graduates from college in the Spring. I've always wanted to go to Canada. So, I will be able to mark this off my personal bucket list.


I've also been planning how I will spend my sabbatical time. That's one month off with pay. I'll most likely tack on some of my own personal vacation time. So, 5 weeks or so off in one monstrous chunk. I'll probably spend about 10 days in Canada. I'd like to go to Harveyville and spend an entire week alone drowning in in fiber-related heaven. But, that might not be doable. And I'll either clean out the damn basement or the attic. And knit to my heart's content.

I've got a pot of black-eyed peas simmering on the stove for good luck. And I'm spending the rest of the day knitting happily with my trusty Beagle and Alligator Puppy by my side.

A Review of My 2007 Knitting

One of the reasons I started this blog was to keep track of my knitting progress. The advent of Ravelry has made that so much easier. I've also found that by writing this blog, I've become more conscious about my knitting and life in general. For years I resisted New Year's Resolutions or goal setting of any kind. By keeping track of the things I make or accomplish I've found that setting goals is satisfying rather than frustrating. Before I set any goals for the coming year, I thought I'd review what I've accomplished.
So, here is the list of the Things I Made in 2007
1 and 2) Fuzzy Feet for Danny & Caitlin
3) Dog sweater for Billy
4) Reversible Cable Scarf
5) A hat for me
6) Corporate Camo
7) Noro Striped Scarf for Dustin
8) Noro Striped Scarf for Caitlin
9) Fetching glovelets for Caitlin
10) Garter glovelets for Danny
11) Chanel-ish Cardigan Jacket for Tate
12) Watercolor socks for me
13) Shibori scarf for Tate
14) Hyde Park Pullover for me
15) Stolen fingerless mitts
16) My So-Called Scarf for Danny
17) Socks for Tate
18) Nikko Wrap