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.)

Just another manic... Thursday?

Doesn't have the same ring, does it?
Well, my life has exploded. MDC (most despised coworker) is moving away. HOORAY! To another whole continent! HOORAY! I'm pretty sure I won't be able to hear the crunching of the granola all the way from Thailand. BUT. I got two of her products to support. That brings my total up to SIX. Soon, one of those will go away, and I will have all kinds of free time, because I will only have five. Assuming I still have a job at all. Sigh.
DH is in the construction business. He vacillates between "YAY, I'm going to make so much money you can retire and we'll pay off the house in five years" and "OMG, we're going to be in the poor house and I have to find new jobs NOW - how do you feel about Las Vegas?" Sigh.
Someone told the Bug that it was okay to be terrible because he's two. Sigh.
At least the knitting is okay. The eyelet sweater is an insanely enjoyable knit. I'm getting a little bored after 23 inches, but I'm almost finished with the back. I think I have about three more inches to go. It's quite pretty, and I am looking forward to wearing it. The Cheshire Cat Stole is breathing down my neck, though, and the pink cashmere is whimpering when I get near it, asking to be cast on. I have decided I will allow myself to start it when the back of the cardigan is finished, before I cast on for a front or sleeves. I have a small hope that I will get it finished for Christmas so I can give it to MIL. I got the bicone beads (a deep glittery rose that I absolutely love, despite my general aversion to pink) so the only thing stopping me is willpower. Willpower is not my strong point, so I need to finish up the cardigan back soon.
Anyway, yes, I said it. Christmas. It's coming. Fast. Next week is the end of September. (How the hell does that happen? Sheesh.) I have very modest plans for crafting this Christmas. One stole, several knitted wire candleholders like these, and a quilt. The quilt top is completed, and only needs quilting (by machine, I'm not totally out of touch with reality) and binding. I think I can do it. Time will tell.

Bug thinks it's all good.

Thank you

Thanks for all the words of support. I have been doing well, actually - it's Saturday night, which means it's been four days without a cigarette and it's gotten easier. Actually, I can't quite remember what night it was that I had my last, but since I only smoked a few days, I'm sticking with my original quit date (1/5/05, the day I found out I was pregnant) and calling this a relapse. I still have a low flash point on my temper, but it's mostly aimed at DH. He got an inkling early on that I was quitting (I didn't tell him) and has spent most of his free time in the garage tinkering with his Harley. The first night, when we were about to argue about dinner, he asked me with exasperation, "FINE, what do YOU want?" I thought about it a minute and said, "I want you to go away for a while." He did, and after I got over the irritation that he didn't ask me what was wrong (I never said my brain made sense) I knitted all night and enjoyed myself thoroughly. The temper is getting better, and tomorrow I might actually go out in the back yard for a cup of coffee.
I am chugging along on Swallowtail - 11 body repeats down, three to go. I also started the heel of the first Hogwarts sock (must knit faster on that one) and swatched for my mystery stole, which starts next Friday. Here 'tis - yarn color is fairly accurate on this, although the beads are the same color as the yarn when you look at them directly. (They change to that pretty teal when viewed at an angle - I dunno what that effect is called, but I like it.)


Crappy crappy swatch.

I did a terrible job on the swatch (20 rows, 35 stitches, and at least three unfixed mistakes. Oy.) but I don't care - I like the fabric it made, and I practiced with the beads, and that's the whole point of swatching for an item that has no required finished size. This is my first laceweight project (though not first lace, obviously) and I'm wondering about the sanity of the person who invented laceweight. It's like how the Japanese as a culture are constantly inventing or creating ever-tinier things. It'll kill me, sooner or later.

In the meantime, I'm going to wander off with my aches and pains, projectile phlegm, hacking cough (isn't that supposed to go away when you quit smoking?), infected tastebuds and bad attitude, all indications that my body is pissed at me for poisoning it again, and leave you with these quotes from Nic. (What, so I named the nicotine voice in my head, and it's not creative. Shut up or I'll have to kill something.)

• I can't believe he is going to the garage and didn't ask about my mood. I should go have a cigarette.


• I can't wait until I'm not addicted anymore and then I can go have a cigarette.


• I lost three pounds and ate chocolate every day. I should totally keep smoking until I'm at goal. (That one almost got me, I admit.)


• (My fave) Five days isn't really addicted. No one will be impressed about quitting after five days. I should smoke longer so it will be cooler when I quit.*
  

The reason I quit in the first place.

*I never said I was smart, or that Nic made sense.

Más messes.

The argyles have been in timeout all weekend. Every once in a while I'd think nasty thoughts at them. (I would have given them dirty looks, but I can't remember where they are.)
On Friday I got a wild hair, and dove into this new project without thought for time frame or knitting/planning abilities. My coworker has been diagnosed with two kinds of breast cancer (who knew there were TWO kinds?!) and had a mastectomy last week. Prognosis is good as her lymph nodes were clean, but I felt like I wanted to send her some knitted comfort anyway. I got the idea to get a skein of Sea Silk and pull a Grumperina. I do not own Victorian Lace Today, nor do I have any desire to. I could not find a free pattern online or a pattern in any of the books I do own that I liked, that would be suitable for one measly skein of sea silk. (I found lots of lovely patterns, just not The One I Wanted.) I decided to make it up.
Oy.
I got out my little BW #1, found the pattern I wanted, and charted it. When I was almost finished with the chart, I hit the wrong key and changed everything to the same symbol, and it was one of those No Undo functions. Drat. I fixed it, made a copy so it would be two repeats wide, and tried to knit it. Took me all weekend to work out the bugs. Tried to modify it a little, and made BIG mistakes. Ugliness ensued. Behold, I have created the only lace in the world that looks reasonably okay unstretched, but is TOTAL ASS when pin-blocked. On top of that, I'm still not sure the pattern I picked is open enough to allow for a decently sized scarf with only 438 yards to work with.


Ass-tastic lace. Oh yeah, and I can't count.

No way I'm posting that all pinned out. It's heinous.

I took a break to have a Mother's Day celebration that included this:


Fresh berries make it all better.

and some of this:


This photo utterly captures the essence of my son.

and a little of this:


I'm glad no one takes photos of me looking like that.

Lastly, Blogless Lynn (not Ulster Lynn) is on notice: quit finding more hobbies for me, dammit.


It doesn't help that you can't make ugly beaded stitch-markers. Damn.