wha? where am i?

welcome to february, my lovies. here we are, five weeks into the new year. is it just me or does that seem crazy-long and also not nearly long enough? on one hand i can't believe it's already february 7, and on the other hand new year's and christmas seem so far in the past.
incidentally, i seem to have given up capitalization for new year's.
hmm, well. life has been busy. last year my company purchased a smaller company and one group is working to bring the products in line with our way of doing things and our style, without changing their procedures (much). since i belong to all and no one at the same time, i was given the task of editing the manufacturing documentation. there are many people from all over the country involved, and we all zipped off to irvine, ca, for much of the work. i have come in on the tail end of the thing, so my travel has been much less than others'. still, it has been a bit difficult, mostly on T and the boys. T took over like he's been doing the daddy thing for a lifetime instead of less than a year, and i think the boys behaved better than when i'm around. they act like they miss me, though, so i keep coming home to loads of hugs and smiling faces, and there is nothing better. :D
the trips are getting shorter, though, and i can do most of what's left from the office in tempe, so i don't have much travel left. the first trip i took all my latvian-mitten yarn, my b-side, and a scarf. i didn't knit much that trip. the second time, i schlepped my sweater and the handspun nutkin i started a million years ago. i knitted a little on the nutkin on the plane, but not much else. this last time i took only the sock, and got a few repeats up the leg. after trying the thing on i have determined that i hate the toe i picked, and the short-row heel is about two rows too deep. i will fix those later. i expect i will take the sock along this week, and again if i have to go back next week. (in these trips i'm only really gone overnight.)
this weekend i devoted some time to b-side. when last you saw it, i'd picked up all the stitches for the sleeves and was short-rowing my way around. i hated the way it was turning out, and since i'd already knit three full sleeves i figured i'd better make darn sure this sweater was going to fit well and look good, so i ripped. i used the ratios as before for the proportion of the sleeve to short-row and just picked up the stitches as i got from side to side. i ended up with many more stitches, and many fewer decreases. i like the look of it much better, and the extra stitches ensure plenty of room for the bingo wings. i am now knitting round and round and round, decreasing my way down the sleeve. i haven't measured in a while, but i guess i'm 1/3 to 1/2 the way down. the thing that would be nifty about now would be the ability to find the paper i scribbled my sleeve notes on, so i can remember how long i intend to knit the decrease portion and/or how many stitches i'm supposed to end up with before starting the ribbing.
i still have that red scarf on the go - i didn't finish T's dad's christmas scarf in time so i appropriated the one from ofa's box, as it was the same style and color. i believe i am nearly finished with it, but truth be told, the nutkin and the sweater, both destined for me, get attention when it's cold. that's all i'm actively working on right now. i'm anxious to get them finished, both to wear them before the weather heats up, and to get out some other wips or new projects to play with.

Lynn in Tucson made me do it.

Cuz we all know the Devil has nothing on your Enabling Friends.

But first! We didn't do the whole "end as you mean to go on" thing. Unless you count the fact that I mean to continue ignoring the housework... Anyway, I finally had the fortitude to face B-Side, and picked out the sewn-in sleeve, ripped it out, googling the instructions on knitting a set-in sleeve top-down from picked-up stitches, and worked some maths. I think the maths are right, I can't be sure of the counting. I also think I don't particularly love the decreases-while-short-rowing look, and if the sleeves are otherwise satisfactory I will probably rework them to include a centered double-decrease down the "crease line" of the sleeves on future patterns. Either that or I will need to fix my wrapping techniques on the short rows cuz I think I might be wrapping in the wrong direction. In either case, I'm not fixing it on this sweater. Partly because I don't think the yarn can stand much more ripping, and partly because, renewed with hope and love of knitting as I am, another setback on this sweater might turn it to crackers, a là Cookie. I also think blocking will help a bit. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.



And so, we enter the Year of the Mitten. Or maybe a more appropriate title would be the Year of Colorwork. Primarily since my SIL has been hinting that she wants more hats like the one I crocheted for her, and I can't find any other crocheted patterns I like, and will henceforth be diving into the Land of Colorful Tams. (Appropriate, as she's Aunt Tam, no?) (As soon as I get over the Flaming Resentment of her repeated "hints" for knitwear.)
Anyway, I've been slavering for Latvian mittens. I have the book, I have the time. (Well, I have some.) I have access to my little stash and some inexpensive local or internet yarns. I was making a purchase that vaulted me over the line for free shipping, and, well, it was just financially responsible to go ahead and order a few fingering-weight solids. This year I have vowed to get my finances under control, and how better to do that than to buy enough to avoid shipping fees? It's a no-brainer, really.



Since it is not my intention to carry around the better part of a sweater, even though my new bag (squee!) allows me to, the mittens may become my lunchtime knitting after my scarf is done. (I wasn't going to finish T's dad's scarf in time for Christmas without seriously killing myself, so I appropriated the one I'd knit for OFA and am replacing it with the one (same pattern, nearly same color) I started for him.) It seems that the good thing about putting some projects in extended timeout is that after a while, they become exciting again. I have Madli and some Nutkins I'm anxious to get back to, also, though I'm pacing myself and alternating with new projects to avoid burnout. :D

Back to life, back to reality.

Sigh.
Back from Seattle, where it was warm and humid and sunny (DAMMIT) for days, only getting cold and rainy this weekend.  Loads of fun.  Prolly not going to give the rundown because there is too much to splain and I am too lazy to sum up.  Met T's family, though - lovely people.
Didn't finish the sweater.  Sewed one sleeve while there and discovered that while the body is actually larger than I expected, the sleeves don't fit at all.  One of three things:
a) I knit the wrong size.
b) I am freakishly proportioned where my arms are concerned.
c) The designer is freakishly proportioned where her arms are concerned.

I am going with c, myself.  I can't decide whether to:
a) Rip and reknit (AGAIN).
b) Knit a strip and sew it in.
c) Make it a B-side vest.

Bleh.

This title intentionally left blank.

Sleeve #1 is done (again). During the increases, I continually thought it would be too short. The sleeve cap always surprises me with its length, and whilst knitting that I was sure it was going to be too long. Holding the unblocked sleeve up to my arm, it is long, and a touch too narrow. Blocking commences at eighteen-thirty tonight (aka, 630pm, aka, 12 seconds after I walk in the door from work). Assuming no major gauge changes when the sleeve hits the water (as I recall I washed the swatch and was okay) I think I'll be able to finish the other sleeve with enough time for finishing prior to our trip. Who knows? Maybe the bit of collar I plan to do will be my plane knitting. (Yeah right, like there will be plane knitting with the chillens around.)



(The picture was taken this evening - it is a touch long and a tad wide, but not so much that I can't work with it.  Better slightly large than slightly small.)

Anyway, the weekend was more or less lovely. There were some power struggles over food with his royal highness, Bug. Kid convinces himself that he doesn't like something, and even though he's eaten it (with abandon) before, he is so entrenched in the idea that it's yucky that he actually throws up upon taking a bite. Seriously. (Of course, when I pointed out that last night's dinner - a bastardization of stroganoff - was something his dad used to make him, he ate the requisite bites and no further vomiting ensued.) Smacky occasionally refuses food, but his technique is less subtle (yes, less subtle that vomiting) - he just chucks what he doesn't want on the floor. Sigh. I'd try a roomba or a scooba running under his chair during mealtimes, but I think I'll have to wait until such time as someone invents a robotic shop-vac.
Several of you commented last time about how Bug looks like such a big kid, and it's true - Thursday I went down and signed him up for kindergarten. Because he won't be 5 by September 1 (he misses it by a couple weeks) they had to evaluate his readiness, and listening to him answer the woman's questions about counting, animals, colors, etc...sigh. He was so big and grown up, and so little teeny boy at the same time... I can't believe my eensy baby is going to school.
Beyond that, not much is happening. The complex finally finished the pool remodel and the landlady got me the key last night, so we might actually get through this week of predicted-112-highs without melting or killing each other. I signed up for a gym here in town and will start (tomorrow) my next 10-week running program. I thought I'd have time to get in two programs before my intended race, but I looked just now, and it's just over 12 weeks away. That means that Christmas is coming, people. (I dunno why, but I always start thinking about Christmas in July - I think it's a combination of wishing for cooler temperatures, and the grudging recognition that here we are AGAIN in the latter half of the year and wherethehelldidthelastsixmonthsgo?) Saying it's July, Christmas doesn't seem that close. But the fact that a mere 10 weeks and we're at the end of September? We'll be roasting turkeys and singing Jingle Bells before you know it. Consider this your reminder that you're gonna wanna start thinking about your holiday knitting.
(And stop throwing those rotten tomatoes at me. I'm just the messenger. Besides, Lynn, your chickens need those.)

Last day of the first half.

Hey, I remember this stuff!

It's knitting, right?


I can't tell you how long it's been since I had a picture of knitting on this here blog.  (Well, I could, but I'm too lazy to go back and look.)  I actually got to do some of that this weekend whilst ignoring the still-unpacked boxes lying around the house.
Saturday morning after a leisurely, loooooong breakfast...



...T went outside and gathered the bikes.  With the "help" of the chillens, he fixed them up, pumped up the tires, tidied everything nicely, and got us all ready to go.
There's a lovely park near the new place, with a bike path that goes for miles and miles, past xeriscape gardens, ballparks, duck ponds (we saw a TURTLE!!!!!!! MOM DO YOU SEE THE TURTLE?!  THERE IT IS MOM DO YOU SEE IT? MOM! MOM!!! A TUUUURRRRRTLLLLLLEEEE) and it had been calling to me.  We helmeted up...
 

...strapped Smacky in the seat, and headed off, in the middle of the hottest part of the day.  It was a bit shady, which was nice, and we all remembered water and sunblock.  We didn't go far, as Bug's little legs and hard-used bike tire easily, but it was a high-point, for sure.  After a grocery-shopping trip (during which we discovered there IS a limit to what a diaper will hold, and it was actually SMACKY leaking from the cart and not any of the groceries) we got a babysitter, and headed out to the Rhythm Room for a CD release party.  We saw Chris James and Patrick Rynn (part of the Rhythm Room Allstars) who were joined by Big Pete Pearson.  Big Pete looks like Redd Foxx and BB King combined, and in his early 80s, he can still sing the blues and shake it.  Live blues? Rocks my socks right off.  (We bought the CD for Chris and Patrick, and Big Pete; I have only listened to the first one, but really, live blues has something intangible that is lost when you put it on CD.)
Sunday involved the boys playing camping outside (cuz nothing says fun like wrapping up in a sleeping bag in 108 degrees)...



while I tidied up the kitchen, mopped the floor (hooray for no-longer sticking), and discovered that my Dyson sucks, cuz it no longer sucks.  There was chocolate cookie baking, too.  (Chocolate crinkles, to be exact.)



After I ensured there was no heat stroke and finished my cleaning, I sat on the couch with a beer and my knitting, and people?  It was OH. SO. GOOD.  Sometimes I forget to relax when I know there are boxes to unpack, dishes to wash, floors to un-stick...  I will have to do a better job of taking time to have fun in the evenings.
Since it has been several days since I wrote most of this, I'll add a little more - yesterday we bought our tickets to go to Seattle for T's birthday.  We'll be gone for a whole week (in the hottest part of the summer, OH YES I'm getting out of dodge) visiting T's parents and celebrating his mumblemumble birthday with his family. 
Since we'll be heading to someplace that has decent weather and actual moisture in the air, I figured I'd better finish B-Side.  I'd knitted the better part of one sleeve and discovered that the gauge I'd used to recalculate the increases was suddenly no longer the right gauge, and 15 inches of (sport-weight) sleeve had to be ripped.  I ripped it out and threw it aside in a fit of rage and it's lucky I didn't tear it to bits with my teeth set it aside, but thought yesterday I'd like to have it done for Seattle.  Whaddya think - two sleeves, a button (zipper?) band and the making-up in a month?  (I'm not doing the shawl collar.)



We'll see, I s'pose.  I'll be giving it my best effort.  (Which is good because even though I bought more size 5 Options tips to replace the heinous, awful, OMGIhatethemsomuch Zephyr tips I was using, I can't find them, so the red Palindrome scarf is on time-out until I get bored with B-Side again finish B-Side.) And why no, I haven't been thinking about buying the extra beads I need to finish Madli.  No, not at all, and I haven't even been googling the website for that bead shop near work to see if I could get the seed beads I need.  Nope, cuz I'm focusing on B-Side and not even thinking about those other projects...  And under no circumstances was I thinking about destashing the brown Beaverslide I bought for Linden and getting something in red like I'd originally planned.  Nope, focused, that's me.

(Need to point out that all photos that are a) good, b) not of knitting, and c) don't actually contain T were actually TAKEN by T, and I had the audacity to post them without editing them in any way.)

Land of the Lost

Yup. Welcome to AZ, where you don't need a permit to carry a gun, but you DO need one to be Mexican.
ANYWAY.
Here is a list of the random crap that has been happening since I got back.
1) First of all, thank you for all the kind words about Rick's trip, and Peaches. To be honest, both were a relief and took a load off my mind. I fulfilled my promises to Rick and his family, and to Peaches too. Peach always did like Rick best. ;-)
ii) The rest of my time has been crazy busy. I know everyone says that, and it's mostly true - life quickens its pace in the spring and suddenly there are gazillions of things to do, even if (like me) you don't garden or do housework or any of those things. Bug is now playing T-ball, which is totally hilarious. Teaching these kids the rules of a complex game like baseball is hit-and-miss. Last game there were kids fielding the ball when they were supposed to be running the bases, one kid refused to hit the ball toward the field and instead hit it toward where the catcher would have been, and Bug decided he didn't want to run the bases unless I was in the field and challenged him to a race. Which I had to do whilst holding Smacky. The Three Stooges had nothing on these kids.



c) I recalculated the increases on the sleeves of B-side. I did this because my gauge was 8rpi and the pattern called for 9rpi. (I think - when I calculated it, following the increases as written would have resulted in a sleeve that was like 23 inches long.) I knitted to the end of the recalculated increases, prepared to knit a bit to reach 19 inches, and realized that my gauge had changed and was now spot on with the pattern, and my sleeve was now 4 inches TOO SHORT. 12 of the 15 inches of sleeve, ripped. Sigh. Took me a whole week to admit I'd done it. Haven't touched it since.

IV)I have big things happening this week. Nothing I can share just yet, but if you wouldn't mind, please harness your knitterly powers and send good thoughts aimed at me, that whatever is for the best will happen.

5) Please tell me when my kid got big enough to start learning to write.



six) Fear not, Smacky's still little enough to be weird. (This is pretty much where he spends evenings, waiting for dinner. He is NOT eating the dog food, just chucking it around the kitchen. I swear he has a stash of it somewhere.)



G) This is where my free time goes anymore.

March on.

So, apparently since so many people found it necessary to tell me to be easy on myself, I sounded whinier than I'd intended last post. I wasn't really trying to whine, I swear it. I actually dunno what I was doing. Suffering from logorrhea? Trying to put Spring Fever into words? Trying to make my instant-gratification-wanting self sound grown up about the tantrum I wanted to have? WHINING, perhaps?
Sigh.
Anyway, this week things have been more On than Off. More sunlight and a few beautiful days here and there have gone a long way toward making me feel better, AND I finally sucked it up and did some of the yucky chores I didn't want to do. Still working on the IRS and the mortgage people, but as long as I'm not moving backwards I'm okay.
I did NOT finish my Olympic knitting, with which I am also okay. I did make surprisingly good progress given how little tolerance the Bug developed for the same two bloody commercials ad nauseum (yeah, okay, it was me - he was a fan of Ice Dancing and all the skiing crashes. He thinks crashing was their intent when they flung themselves down the hill at high speed with nothing but slippery sticks on their feet. I can't quite figure out where he got that idea...) I did remember how to fit a little knitting into my days, and how much happier I am when I do that. And I made progress, yo.


Horrible photo, but we've come to expect that here, no? As it turns out, the focus is way better once you turn off the macro setting. o.0

And here, and artsy silly shot, because my phone camera has a macro setting. (SIGH.)


I had hoped to get some photos of warm, but alas, my weekend looked like this.



I do love the rain, but I don't know what to make of the fact that for the last few weeks, the workdays have been sunny, mid 70s, and the weekends have been cold and rainy. Seems particularly cruel, given that we are nearing the end of our out-door season here in Satan's Blast Furnace.

Feelin' hothothot

And it's only February.
Which means it's time to post pictures of the weather, which is our reward for living in hell for 9 months out of the year.
Taken today:


Flowering pear (I think):


Apropos of nothing, one of my Firefox tabs is showing Jessalu's blog, with the title of the post being Epic. I keep seeing it out of the corner of my eye and reading "Epic Jesus".

And that is your random for the day. I have lovely pictures of Sabino Canyon from Sunday, beautiful water and warm sun and happy children, but I can find the battery charger for my camera and the computer cable for Rick's. And while the cards are interchangeable, those other things are not. Drat. They are stuck there forever. I am also working on B-Side for my Olympic project in the WIP finishing category. I think I have put on about 3 inches, which doesn't sound like much until you realize each inch is roughly 2400 stitches. I have four soul crushing rows before I divide for the armscyes and as FSM as my witness, I shall finish those four tonight.

Forward

Life is being lived around here these days. News and blogs bring lots of other horrible shit happening all around us, and I think there's no escaping it. When I rule the world, babies will be born healthy and on time, people will settle their differences by talking about it, or maybe with a good healthy arm-wrestling session followed by beers at the local pub, and no one will avoid going to the doctor because it will cost too much. In the meantime, though, all I can do is try to counteract the shit by being the best person I know how to, for my sons, for myself, and for all of you who have been so wonderful, supportive, and caring. I'd been wallowing in a lovely bout of self pity for a while, and then the IBOL guy linked to this site, and I started to realize that people came out of the woodworks to shower me and my little guys with love, help, prayers and hugs, and I was finally able to see that, while I miss Rick and my life will always have that scar on it, I am well and truly blessed by beautiful friends and family, both in person and on-web. It was humbling to sit back and think about the grace that appeared in my life when I needed it most. So anyway, thanks.

(Also, thanks for the birthday wishes for my little man. He's so big, I can hardly stand it.)

In other news, I can has a job! I interviewed for this position back in July and thought for sure they'd filled it already, but Tuesday I got a call from the HR Guy asking for my references. I sent them off, and last thing Friday afternoon, the hiring manager called and offered me the job. It's local, it pays the bills, it gets me out of the house and allows me to talk to new people, and I'm thrilled. I don't start for a few weeks, which gives me some time to get my house in order and get a few new work outfits and a haircut and such. To say I am relieved is the understatement of the century.

In addition, I am going to Taos! I'd planned to go months ago, when Rick was still in decent health, but thought that plan was gone because of all that happened. Since I still have a bit saved, and I know that I won't be homeless anytime in the immediate future, I decided I'd take my boys, meet my stepdaughter there, and we'd have a little vacation. Squish, Angie? Get ready, I can't wait!

In knitting knews, there has been some. B-side grows slowly, mostly because 280+ stitches per row + sport weight yarn + slow knitter = glacial growth. It is growing, though, and I love the fabric it's making. I'm ready to start the increases and hope to be ready to divide for fronts and back by the time I leave for Taos later in the week. This is relatively close to the color of the actual yarn, or as close as I could get it with my limited color-balancing abilities.



Now, if you'll excuse me, it's shaping up to be a beautiful day (the Sonoran desert has the inverse of everyone else's weather - we're just coming into the "outside" season, opening our houses to soft breezes and tweeting birds after the crushing heat of the summer) and I think I'll take my boys to the zoo. And maybe, if they're really lucky, to the carwash where the bunny lives.

Yeah, well.

This blogging thing is kinda hard work sometimes. I used to think in status updates and blog posts, and now I mostly don't think in any technological form at all. I still waste time on the web, and have been enjoying my first audio book (after all, why not? I loved being read to as a kid), but mostly my life is pretty devoid of its public presence. I think it's natural. I know that friends and family don't want to dwell on Rick's absence, and talking about him is much of what I want to do, so instead I talk TO him, and spare them (and you). I never realized just how much of my social outlet he was - work was much of the rest of it, and now that they're both gone, I don't really talk to people much. I always knew I was a hermit at heart. ;-)
The thing I figured out recently, why I can’t wrap my head around the fact that Rick is gone for good, is that it was so ordinary. I felt like the earth should have shaken, or tornados and hurricanes should have raged, or something. I think we go through lives with this "it won't happen to me or my family" attitude, but OF COURSE it will. It makes me wonder if, in places that are not the US, where we’ve insulated ourselves from death, if death really is ordinary. I mean, it’s part of life, we all have to do it, but it was such a spectacularly awful thing that it really feels to me like there can’t be nice days without Rick, and the whole world should have stopped and mourned with me. The fact that everything just went on, except for our little lives, is so strange and unreal, you know? I wonder if everyone feels a loved one’s death like this, or if in places where people aren't so insulated, where they are more attuned to the whole life cycle of things, they say, “Well, that’s that. I’ll miss him, but I have to weed the garden.”

Anyway. Enough now. I have come to the conclusion that I couldn't bear to work on any of the knitting from "before", so I started some new things. (Oooh, lookit me, I'll use any excuse for startitis.) For a few weeks, I couldn't even knit at all, but my hands needed to do something, so I appliqued. You know, because nothing goes with a long, 100+ for-days-heat-spell like appliqued snowmen. This is as far as I got, because the siren song of new knitting called, and I answered.



Here is the knitting. This is a seriously long term project, since it is done on smallish needles with sport weight yarn and is knit back and forth in one piece. Lawdy I have got to get skinnier if I want more handknit sweaters. Anyway, it's B-Side, by Laura Chau, in the Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool that Joan sent me.


(Colors are so far off in this photo as to be almost completely unrelated.)

Finally, this is not a project, but a cool thing. I have a DARTH VADER TIN. Yes, it's true, I am the coolest space nerd out there. There is no one cooler/nerdier than I. My supercool nerdiosity is the greatest.