Running Short

I have been knitting the Op Art baby blanket by Melissa Dominguez published in Knitty 2008 in Rowan Softknit Cotton and Halcyon Yarn Casco Bay Worsted for my new Nephew who is due any day now. I did stockinette on all the rounds but the last stripe.  Garter stitch in the round is slightly evil.

I am on row 6 of 16 in the final stripe (which is white) of this baby blanket.  Last night, hubby commented that it is almost done. I said "Yep and I will have a lot of black left but not much white."  I pulled the cone of black out to show how much is left and then pulled out the white ball that was looking deflated. A little too deflated. 

Tiny ball and big blanket.

I checked my math with my trusty food/ yarn scale. I had used this 50 gram ball to do 7 rows, I have 10 more ever increasing rows and it now weighed...GULP...20 grams.

I ran to the computer to buy another ball.  I found a coupon in my e-mail that gave me free 2-3 day shipping from Paradise Fibers. They are the super fastest shippers and I knew I could count on them.  I even got a notice that it shipped today! "I am going to have it before I finish knitting up this ball!" I danced around the house.

Then I saw the weather...we could get anywhere from 5-18 inches of snow tomorrow night. Sigh.
USPS says, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."  However, I believe I may be knitting on something else to get me through the storm.

My Mom "LIKES" me alot.

When I logged on to Facebook this morning, I saw that I have 5 notifications.  Three of the notifications were telling me that my mom "liked" something I wrote.  Sometimes, I think she uses the "like" button to mark where she has been, like my dog on a walk around the block. We have 55 friends in common which means anything I write, she sees. Most of the "Favorites" on my projects on Ravelry are from her. She has my first knitted washcloth and my Kindergarten art smock.  She has retired and moved to my hometown. I see her almost every day. She will be the first to read and comment on this blog post. To say she is my biggest fan is a bit of an understatement.

I was talked to my co-worker from China and she said, "You are lucky. Your family is so close. They all love and care for you." Her family, including her husband, is all in China except for her daughter, who my co-worker raised alone. 

I read my favorite Ravelry board, Selfish Knitters.  Lots of them have narcissistic mothers and they are just now as adults learning to tell people "no." Their mothers think the world revolves around themselves.  It is a very child like attitude that is hard for me to understand in mothers.

Then I drove home and thought about it.  My commute is my time. I listen to NPR and Pop music with no comments regarding my taste or political leanings. I call my best friend for a nice phone chat that is not interrupted by, "MOM! He is touching ME!" It is kinda nice.

I was so deep in thought, I lost track of time and ended up in the slow lane. I looked at the clock and realized I wasn't going to make it to both day cares before they close.  CRAP!  I picked up the phone and called the only person I knew who could help.

"Mom? Would you pick up the boys from daycare?...Thanks...Yes, Subway sounds nice for dinner...Yes, after dinner I have to take both boys to Bugs' Cub Scouts because Bear is at work and then I have to go to the grocery store...Oh...Yes it would be nice if you could take Boo AND go to the grocery store while Bugs and I go to scouts...Thank you, Mom, you are a life saver."

She wouldn't even let me pay for dinner or my groceries.  She makes me wish that real life had buttons.

So, I can click "LIKE"

One of those days

So, Tuesdays are my one day that I have to work full time and be an only parent.  I am aware that there are other people who do this every day but one day a week is enough to wipe me out.

My day was normal until I got home. I have two hours from the moment I get through the door till the boys go to bed.  My elderly dog peed in the bathroom, Bugs knocked his dinner on the floor on accident,  I realized a stitch was missing two rows down on my fair isle Sheep Heid hat, I found the DVD that I swore to my friend I had already returned it to her and then Bugs busted the mirror in his bedroom, also on accident.  So, after all the clean up, feeding, bathing and tucking in, I smothered my sorrows in a peanut butter & bacon sandwich while surfing the internet and listening to Boo NOT go to bed.

Then it hit me.  I remembered that I can just make the missing stitch from two rows below and then ladder it up like a dropped stitch.  Somehow, that made me feel much better (well, the bacon didn't hurt either) and I am going to bed on a high note.  

E-mail Quiz

Do you remember back in the old days when friends used to send each other quizzes through e-mail?  Like "Who are you more like, Brenda or Kelly?"
Or "Which New Kids on the Block singer is your soul mate?"

You answered the questions and got points for your answers or sometimes it would just say Mostly A you are...mostly B you are ...

So, one of these quizzes hit a nerve with me all those years ago. It was the "Are you Selfish or a Pushover?" quiz.  Really only one question hit the nerve. It said:

If you are headed to the public restroom and you know people are coming in behind you. There are 3 stalls. Do you:
A. Go in the first stall which is the handicapped stall
B. Go to the second stall in case there is someone behind you who needs the handicapped stall
C. Go to the third stall to allow others to have the first two

There were other questions like this and when you got to the bottom you found that people who picked A's were selfish and C's were pushovers.

Now, every time I go to the public restroom (yes, every time) I think of the woman (I just know it is a woman) who wrote this stupid quiz.  I know that she liked the first stall at work. She wanted it all for herself and she didn't want anyone else to use it. So, she wrote this quiz and sent it to her co-workers.  Then the other women were brainwashed into believing that they needed to use the second stall or they were a selfish person/ pushover.  I wonder how many women were affected by this e-mail. Then I wonder if I could make a quiz to convince my co-workers to clean their own dishes and not leave them in the work sink.

By the way, I was a Brenda and Joey was my soul mate, of course.

My feet got cold

At the beginning of the month, I was telling myself I just had to weave in the ends of my "Katniss Socks" (which is a misnomer because I hardly used the wonderful pattern by Rose Hiver, I took the braid/ ribbing and knit some DK toe up heel flap socks using David's Toe-up Sock Cookbook)

So then last Sunday, I washed the socks but didn't weave in the ends. They hung dry till Tuesday and then I put them on my night stand so they could mock me.  They sat their glaring at me until Friday night.  It was cold in the house and Daddy was out at the fire hall so the boys had piled into my bed.  I already had all the lights off but I couldn't sleep. My feet were so cold.  So grudgingly I turned the lights back on and as the boys happily looked at books a little longer while I sewed in the ends of the socks. (Yes I have a darning needle in my night stand. You don't?) 

They are super warm.  Like maybe too warm for my bed but they would be great for walking through the snow with no shoes. They will be great when I am sick and my feet will not stay warm.

Made from Suffolk Dorset boot sock by Solitude Wool made fuzzy with Angel's dog hair.

Bugs went missing

I was sitting with my laptop early this morning and watching Tim Minchin and Only1Noah.  Boo was in the TV room watching cartoons and I had not seen Bugs yet.  Then I looked up at the clock. It was too late for Bugs to be sleeping. He wouldn't go to bed on time if he didn't get up soon and tomorrow is a school day. 

So I strolled into his room and his bed was empty.  His covers were on the floor.  I picked up his covers but he wasn't under there. I ran to his brother's room and our room on the chance that he woke up and crawled into another bed.  Nope and nope.  I started to panic (as I am apt to do) and I ran through the bedrooms again. I looked under the beds, around the closets, and under all covers again. What will I tell his father, should I call the police, OMG where the heck could he have gone! Would he have gone outside, could he be in the basement, maybe the back deck.

 I started yelling his name as I checked the bathrooms. Screeching when I turned the corner and there he was, coming out of the TV room.  He had walked right past me earlier while I was glued to the computer. I picked him up (hard to do because he is 7 and all legs) and I said, "I thought you were kidnapped by Aliens!" He looked at me and said, "Mom, Aliens aren't real." Touché.

Fair-isle Fingerless Mitts Get Fingers

I mentioned earlier in the week that I have been working on a fair isle project.

It is a project for a gift that was completely finished in June 2011. I followed the pattern exactly.
Heather's Mitts by Spilly Jane


 (There are three because of a gauge error.  The first one was practice)
The pattern is great but my friend here has small hands and they trumpet out. Plus she mentioned that it would be great if they had convertible mitten tops.  So, I stole them back, frogged out the top, re-knit the ribbing and then picked up the stitches on the back and knit up the top.





Then I will do the second. It is lots of fun because I had to make my own choices on lots of it. No pattern to follow. :-)

Regress

When my mother stays overnight with me, no matter if it is one night or many, I start to revert to my teenage ways of sitting and watching her work. She does the dishes, laundry and seems to have a blast doing it. 

Her favorite part seems to be reading bedtime stories to the boys.  It is the one thing I am happy to take over after she goes home.  Harold and the purple crayon, Good Night Moon, Llama Llama, I could read children's books out loud for hours.  My real favorite is The Long Long Letter by Elizabeth Spurr. It sees to be out of print but I got a second copy on Paperbackswap because we have loved our first copy to death.

Do you have a favorite children's book that isn't well known? Please share it in the comments. We are always looking for new books.

Check, Check, Check, Check, Check

Today I slept in, fed my one kid, did 3 loads (so far) of laundry, knitting on my fair isle mittens and washed the socks that still need the ends woven in along with 1/2 a week of wool socks and under garments.

Katniss Socks

Then we went to the pool where we met up with my Dad and Bugs. We had tons of fun and I ended up walking 5 laps in the pool with 35 lbs riding piggy back. Now I am working on my blog (including posting yesterday's entry.) If you read Friday's post you will know that I have worked on all 5 of my goals for the day. Woo Hoo. Now to go to a Super Bowl party. TTFN!

Fair Isle/ Finish up/ Focus February

So, for the month of February, I am going to focus on things that have gone by the wayside.  Like my blog, my work out routine, my laundry, the fair isle fingerless mittens that need mitten tops, the pair of boot socks that just need the ends woven in. So, I am going to do a little of each every day. So, talk to you tomorrow. :-)