Complete happiness
As you might be aware, I knit. Last spring, I decided to try my
hand at lace and laceweight with some lacey scarves as end-of-year
gifts for Becca's teachers.
They were never acknowledged. Mind you, the mulling spices we
gave at Christmas received thank you cards through the mail, but the
hand-made lace scarves in a wool/silk blend laceweight?
Nada. And I even chatted with one of the teachers over the
summer. bleah.
Anywho, after that attempt I got a tad bit cocky. I have many
patterns I have looked over longingly, but I got this itch to go for this. Isn't it gorgeous? And so nice and big to wrap in!
So last July I started. And I worked on it off and on.
Mostly off. Because after a bit the rows got pretty darn
long. At the end it was a half hour to go across once.
About 4-6 weeks ago I picked it up at apporx. 40% finished and started
concentrating. I didn't do too much of other stuff. Other
than a break for Aubrey's baby's sweater and hat. And tv knitting on a scarf. And a spot of
Mystic Light. (It's a knit along. You wouldn't understand.)
And yesterday morning it was done. And I took pictures of it in all its unblocked glory.
Blocking, by the way, is where you wash the lace and then spread the
heck out of it and pin it there and let it dry that way. And when
you unpin it, it stays like that. Gorgeous.
And look at it. I'm in love. I love how I can just drape it
over my shoulders and put my hands in my pockets and it's like I am
wearing long sleeves. Light, lacey, silky long sleeves. I
need more. Lots of these. In these huge sizes to float
around me. And it is warm. It doesn't look as though it
would be. i had to take it off earlier. Thank goodness that
most airconditioning is too high for me. I will be able to wear
this everywhere! Adding to my dorkiness.
Next will be this. In deep plum.
Dorkdom revisited
The Fellowship has left the mines of Moria. For that matter, I am in Return of the King. Aragorn is on the paths of the dead.
So one little problem. No way to bookmark my spot. So if I leave, I have to try and find it again, which could take some time. Or I could write it down on a dorky little piece of paper and lose the paper.
So, no other music ever comes out of my ipod.
What this situation calls for is an ipod that is all Tolkien, all the time. My birthday is coming up. Who want to get me an 8gb?
Children of Hurin 9 hrs
Fellowship of the Ring 20.5 hrs
Hobbit 11.25 hrs
Two Towers 17 hrs
Return of the King 18.5 hrs
Silmarillion 15 hrs
Grand Total 91.25 hrs
Selfish
I own a Bissell carpet cleaner. It is an amazing device. A device which has been seeing weekly use for the past six weeks. Because I have boys who are at the helpful but not potty-trained point. Which means that they try to change their poopy diapers themselves. And there is also drawing on the carpet with markers. And your standard spills and whatnot.
I have long been of the opinion that there is no need for everyone I know to own their own carpet cleaner. I'm not going to be using mine everyday, so why not borrow it?
That has now ended. The carpet cleaner is out on loan as of Sunday, with an expected return date of Thursday evening. You wouldn't think this would be a problem, would you?
I just spent the past hour trying to wash cake icing in blue and red out of a carpet with a washcloth. My boys have learned well that moving a chair lets them reach more things.
Nothing personal to any of my friends, but if I own the carpet cleaner, why am I the one struggling with the cleanup without it?
For the future, anyone else who wants to borrow my carpet cleaner can rent a cleaner at Schnucks or do the washcloth method themselves. Because when I am PMSing and need to give the boys baths because they are covered in icing and need to register Becca for kindergarten today, but just discovered that the forms are incorrectly filled out and need to take the kids to Becca's dance class and then rush them out of dance class to their scheduled haircuts, I just don't feel like making sacrifices and loving my neighbor.
I just hope there aren't any poopy issues before Thursday.
Who knew?
Innocently, I checked the forecast to see if the projected accumulations had changed. Much to my surprise, it appears that Saturday is 'big pile of doody' day. Carry your umbrella.
I don't know about you, but I think my Saturday is going to be crappy.
Just a sip
For those who are curious, they are still at the Council of Elrond.
ho hum
Let's face it. I'm a boring person. I really don't have anything interesting to talk about. Why?
Because all I want to talk about is yarn and knitting. I was asked this morning how my weekend was and I responded with the status of every project I worked on.
I rate my day by my knitting. This is bad. Maybe I should try to go back to the baby poo stories.
Last night I dreamed that Blue Moon Fiber Arts was discontinuing all colors but the Raven series. So off I rushed to the computer to start browsing and ordering some while they were still available. And then Ben woke me up. I may never know which I would have ordered or how many.
It's pretty disappointing, because I have put myself on a no new yarn diet for six months. Other than the fiber festival this spring, because that would just be unreasonable. Not a financial purpose. I started out trying to get one each of the different lines of sock yarn. Then I could see if I liked knitting up each one and how well it wore before I chose favorites. I have not actually knit up enough of them. My yarn from Stitches, for example. I have one started sock each from two of them. Well heck! Stitches is in August. If I don't get a move on I won't know what is worth repurchasing.
I have checked out all the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit audiobooks (unabridged) to go onto my ipod just so I can multi-task. I was wanting to re-read them, but hey, I can't read and knit, so now I listen and knit. And you know what? I am happy. I embrace my dorkdom.
At this point I have sufficient yarn to knit 25-30 pairs of socks. That won't happen this year. Maybe 20. I'm quite okay with that. I'm thinking that other than Stitches, I should maybe alternate years. Stash building and then stash knitting.
I am trying to be nice and not go into what projects I have started.
On a different note, Magnus is potty-training himself. Dougie has no interest, but Magnus can be seen on random days running out of the bathroom with only a shirt on. It's a bit embarrassing when he does this while Becca is having a playdate and the mom is here.
But yeah, he's going in there on his own, stripping down, moving the stool to the big potty (he won't use the little one), doing his thing, standing up, flushing, moving the stool over to the sink and washing his hands. He will ocassionally ask for assistance, mostly with clothing, but he's more interested in being a big boy on his own.
So yeah.
Gross little tidbit
I mentioned back in my pregnancy past that I am not really a puker. Five times total during two pregnancies. We will discount May, when four out of the five of us got a quick stomach bug. Dougie was unscathed.
Because of my lack of pukage, I am not experienced much in the clean-up process. Magnus had a record seven in May, but at that point we had layers of towels draped over him and there wasn't anything solid.
So last night Dougie went two different rounds in bed.
For starters, hot dogs will still smell strongly like hot dogs. Corn, which we all know is impervious to the digestive tract, will still look like corn. But did you know that they will not exit the washing machine with the drain water?
So at 12:30 this morning I went to move the first round of sheets to the dryer before going to bed. We do have a finite amount of waterproof mattress pads and Dougie was on his third set of sheets for the night. I opened the lid of the washer to discover pink and yellow bits everywhere. I had to pull each piece out and shake it. I ended up re-washing them along with the second set, which I had to scrape off. The idea of putting them into the dryer on the theory that the hot dog was now clean didn't seem good. You would just end up with everything smelling like cooked hot dogs, which probably isn't good for a kid with the barfies.
According to Ben, corn was still present after the second washing. At least it doesn't have a strong smell and the hot dog was gone.
So, for those of you who haven't had experience with vomit/sheet/chunks clean-up, removal of solids is recommended.
Someone might like me!
Back in February 1999, I took a very long lunch and went down to BJC for a bone marrow registry drive. I have been patiently waiting ever since.
I carry the card they gave me in my wallet. When we moved, I called and gave them my new contact info. And more patient waiting.
And now someone may like me! Woohoo! I'm going on Tuesday to get blood drawn and then I get to wait 1-4 weeks to see if I am truly liked. Or, at least, my bone marrow. Right now, I have a 1 in 12 chance of being selected.
I was starting to get a little miffed that people weren't lining up for this prime marrow.
What do you think the chances are of getting a free tummy-tuck while I'm knocked out anyway?
