Feeling Better

Thank you all for wishing me a speedy recovery.

I've been keeping myself entertained with reading your blogs while I refrained from feeling sorry for myself and writing any tear jerky posts.

I've not been out of the house since Friday night, that is until today. I'm feeling better and decided to venture outdoors and buy some batteries for my camera. One of the boys had pinched my camera's batteries to power one of their gd$#% video game remotes.

While I was in bed, I wasn't sure what to do with all the time I had on my hands. I did start another pair of socks

I've gotten the Jaywalker pattern pretty much committed to memory now but I've got to tell you, knitting socks on zer0 needles is not therapeutic! I found myself trembling and breaking out in sweats each time I got to where I might have lost a stitch count. Also, knitting socks on zer0 needles while you are on drugs is not a good idea either

I did manage to finish one sock.

And, even though I had quickly started the second one, I couldn't handle it anymore, my eyes and fingers said, "no mas".

So I started on a different set of socks -


This is Sweet Georgia Brown yarn given to me by my swap buddy, LaVerna. The pattern was very easy but I still had to frog it once. I'm becoming so experienced with socks now that I adjusted the needle size for the cuff to size zer0s and the rest I've been doing on size 2s. I think I could have gotten away with size 3 needles because the sock did come out a bit snug


Another thing about having too much time on your hands is you watch too much tv. I saw Out of Africa - hated it; Dancer Upstairs (for the 4th time) -loved it; Lost in Translation - that Cappola family is amazing; and tons of CSPAN. What was I doing while watching the tube?

This is the first time I've done this design. It's called the Bobble Hat. It only took one skein plus just a couple of yards from a second.

I just love the spiralling colors on the top.

I wore it around the house for a few hours.

"So Mom, what's for dinner?"

One of the challenges of being sick and living with all men is that you are pretty much on your own for grub.

I pulled out my favorite cookbook and turned to a random page and came up with Chicken Pilau. I had all of the ingredients on hand, fortunately. It came out pretty good. I'd show you a picture but it looked disgusting. Instead I'll show you what I made for the #1 vegan son -

His favorite, rice and beans

Well, I'm tired again. Too much thinking, too much typing, too much cooking, too much knitting (hey, did I say that??)

Yup, it's official, girlfriend looks tired. Back to bed.

Just when you think it can't get any worse

No pictures here, a note to say I'm sick. I spent too many knittless hours in the emergency room last night just for them to say, "you are sick". I have some kind of infection (they didn't bother to find out what kind - viral or bacterial) they gave me drugs for both. "You can have shingles or you can have celluitis." Why didn't they just flip a coin??

Oh, and the garage door broke so I couldn't get the car out of the garage (the rented car that is because my car is in the shop). $800 to REPLACE the garage door opener. Hmmmm, let's see what else could I have bought now that I'm up to $3400 in expenses and I've not even gotten a tan yet???

Fix car - $2000
Fix garage door - $800
Fix Deborah - $300 (and counting)

If this keeps up, I'll have to add the entire Koigu color palette to my dream about what I might have splurged on - for my birthday - had I not had the week from hell. My dream would go like this - Knit Koigu socks and Malabrigo sweaters on a beach somewhere while I listen to a bootleg copy of the reunited Police concert...

Stay tuned.

what a pain in the ....

Next week is my birthday. This week we got snow and ice

I understand it is winter, but these sweeping changes to the weather is making me more schitzo than I'm used.

We have one of these so I really shouldn't complain

It did a good job


There were layers of ice and snow that even Hercules wouldn't have been able to lift.

If I can get to the store to buy more batteries for the camera, I'll show you my next sock projects. That's right, plural. You know, ADD.

Meanwhile the van has died. $2000 to get it fixed. Let's think of swell birthday presents one could buy with $2000??

The entire palette of Malabrigo
A sleek laptop
All the books I didn't get around to buying last year
Scalped tickets to see the Police at Madison Square Garden (can ya help me??)

Maybe I can sell the snow blower...

GUESS WHAT???

I DID IT!!!!!

Pattern: Grumperina'a Jaywalkers
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill
Gift from my Secret Sister Lana. Thanks Lana!

Shizam!

Whelp, I finished the first sock, sort of. I still have to close up the toe - which requires a sewing technique - kitchener stitch - that I've tried only once with pal Phyllis trying to show me how it's done.

I finished on Wednesday at Jonathan's Physical Therapy session. We learned a few weeks ago that his muslcle system in and around his ankle hasn't strengthened since coming out of the cast. While he has outlawed knitting at his basketball games, he can't complain about me knitting while I wait for him to finish PT! He has PT 3 times a week that equals 3 extra hours of knitting!

Yesterday, Thursday, I started the second sock at #2 son's basketball game but I blundered the cuff somehow and had to rip it out - it's ok, more practice.

Hopefully, I'll have a new pair of socks to wear this Sunday at #1 son's theatre rehearsal dinner that I'm organizing. Yes, it is true, I have no social life, thank goodness for knitting!

Socky persistance

So many of you encouraged me to not give up on this sock and it really worked. As some of you said, when I went back to it, the instructions made more sense and I figured it out. Then the challenge was to rip back my mistakes - about 3-4 rows all the way to the heel. Not easy to do with zero sized stitches. Well, folks, years of being a big mistake stricken knitter does come in handy. I successfully ripped out my mistake and was able to line up the stitches on the correct needles. I continued on with the heel gusset and instep -

This is the color without the flash

And the color with the flash

Ok, so now I'm up to the part in the instructions called the Foot and I'm stuck again. This time I paused and emailed Grumperina at 1:30am. She hasn't gotten back to me yet. This is what the instructions say to do:

Foot
Continue even in established pattern (including the slipped stitches mentioned above) until foot measures 2 inches (5 cm) less than desired finished length. End with round 1 of zigzag pattern.

Ok, all of you Jaywalker gurus out there. Does this mean I continue in the zigzag pattern without decreasing as the instructions say in the heel gusset part?


Or do I just continue knitting the 2 rows of the zigzag pattern until the foot measures up to my measurements?

Hello?

Sock trials

On Friday, I started another sock.

I love it when I turn the heel correctly -



It was going so well. I was attempting Grumperina'a Jaywalker
pattern. Then disaster struck. I got all the way to the heel gusset instructions when I realized I couldn't make head or tail of what it was I was being told to do. I should have stopped right there and emailed her or called my buddy Phyllis, BUT NOOOO, Ms. "I've been knitting for 20 friggin years and I should be able to figure this out myself" self plowed onward. I don't know, but it's wrong, all wrong and I'm now so very discouraged. Perhaps I should have done the same pattern from my first sock disaster. At least then, I would have gotten the pattern right and could have corrected the gauge with doing them in zeros this time. Nope. Little Ms. Fancy Pants had to try a whole new pattern. Bugger.

In addition to all of that drama, the weather has turned and gone from mild 40s to a single digit with minus whatever when the wind blows. We've got snow and ice. Yea, I know it's February and the weather has been mild but an overnight change makes me more schitzo than usual.

A good time to make Chili.

I'm still doing my recipe thing, trying to make stuff from favorite cookbooks. Yea, I know I said that I would pick just 1 cook book but I realized that I'm actually fond of two so I've been going back and forth.


While the men were engaged in their annual testosterone football event, I got to make a huge pot of that delicious Texas Chili. That should get me off dinner duty for 2 nights. I'll just have to bake a couple of loaves of bread and that ought to hold 'em (get it, Texas hold 'em.... never mind).

New Blogger

Well guys, I've converted. It took me a couple of days. For awhile, I had no idea what I was doing. Now it seems pretty easy. I especially like how easy it is to change the sidebar. Pardon all the "graffiti" there but I sort of went ga ga.

My basketball knitting has been cut in half. Jonathan, my youngest, says that knitting at his games is like, "worse than not coming at all." Well excuuuuuussssss me.

Some of you have asked what I knitted while I was stuck at Night Court. Well, to humor myself, I brought along some orange yarn in solidarity with the guys who were forced to wear orange jumpsuits (those things are so tacky).

But, after hearing some of the sad, sad stories of the prisoners, I realized that my idea was tacky and there was no trivializing what happens to people. Now, what do I do with this hat?

4 HUNNARD FITY DOLLARS!

Yesterday I had the privilege of being a principle actor in a perennial sitcom, Night Court - and you thought it was canceled, right? Nope. The role only cost me $450. It plays every night in a township near you. Allow me to introduce you to the characters -

In New Jersey, Atlantic City isn't the only place where they have casinos.

The prosecutor, look familiar?? Come on people! Look it up.

The bailiff

After watching this guy plead his case, I knew it was pointless for me to do the same.

Next time, I bring my lawyers!

Playdate with Phyllis

A few weeks before Christmas, I had a play date with my knitting buddy, Phyllis. She invited me over for a felting extravaganza. She was finishing up a pair of clogs and she wanted to transform an old sweater of hers into a bag.

I was reminded of our fun afternoon together when I visited my local LYS the other day and there she was wearing her beautiful bag with this amazing leather strap she had sewn on. She mentioned that the straps were not just any old leather straps, they were formerly used as carriage reins. She had them cut down for her bag.

I'll have to talk her into modeling it for me so I can snap a picture for you guys.

The first cut is the hardest! Phyllis is cutting off the sweater's sleeves!

In the foreground are the clogs.

Phyllis' cat loves to craft too. He inspected everything.



Seaming up the clogs before they are felted.

Cutting off extra fuzzies after felting

I think everyone who felts stuff should watch a friend do theirs. I don't know about you but sometimes I feel that the wool and my washing machine sometime conspire to sabotage my projects. Once, it took me nearly an hour to felt one small bag. I never got it to felt. In that case, the wool HAD sabotaged me. Out of all the hundreds of yarn at junky craft store, I managed to buy the one bag of mislabeled wool yarn IT WAS ACTUALLY ACRYLIC. That crap wasn't gonna felt no way. Had I continued with an idea to stick it in a pot of boiling water over a rolling flame, it would have probably melted!

Vintage browsing

This is Milli. She runs a quaint little vintage shop in the next town, Midland Park.

She's holding a parasol that I'll be buying to donate to my town's art in school program ,TICTOC (To Introduce Culture To Our Children).

Sometimes I encounter statutes like this painful visual evidence that life for black people during this period was, for most of us, a life of burden. I thought of my sons and how would it have been to have children during this period. Appreciating the beauty from an era of horrible terror for my ancestors is a serious dilemma for me and it makes me question my consciousness.




The final item I saw on my short vintage shopping spree was this great king sized crochet afghan - $8! What was to be a fun little shopping trip stopped me cold after seeing that statue. This blankie was a warm, symbolic comfort so I bought it as I went home.