our most recent trip

    We got home just a few days ago from our most recent trip. You might have guessed we weren't home, there were little hints in the posts I wrote while we were away. This time Hubs had to attend training outside of Boston. We were there about twelve days.


    This time, we weren't alone. Hubs' co-worker Jason attended as well, and his girlfriend came along too. So there the four of us were. I got a lot of knitting done this trip. But we had some fun as well.


   We went up to Nashua, New Hampshire to go shopping one evening. And they both came with us to the karate tournament that Saturday. It was held in a hotel only about eighteen miles from our hotel, so of course we went! That was one loooong Saturday!


    It's nice to be away from home for a while, but it's always sweet to finally get home. I was so happy to finally sleep in my own bed. I had brought my pillow from home, so at least I had that. But I didn't bring my body pillow. I made do with some of the many pillows that the hotel provided.


    I was afraid that our cat, Ozzy, would be really pissed at us when we got home. After all, I had reports from the people that we had checking on him that he was attacking them. I think he was mad that they weren't his mommy and daddy. Ozzy was, in fact, very happy to see us! He hasn't left me alone since then. The first night, he came into our bedroom four separate times, meowing loudly, and woke me up. I talked to him, but he wouldn't stop. Eventually he left the room. It's like he was reassuring himself that we were really home.

Travels with Hubs, part I

    Over the last seven or so years, I have had the opportunity to travel with Hubs. His work sends him places to learn stuff, and sometimes I get to go too. The first place I got to go was just outside Portland, Oregon.


    We both really liked it there. The weather was beautiful; I think it only rained once the whole three weeks we were there. Of course, it was July. On the weekends, we traveled around, visited the City of Portland on the fabulous train system they have there. We went to the famous Saturday Market on a Sunday. I got to buy lots of tie-dye.


    We went out to the Pacific Ocean twice, it was so much fun. The second time, we stopped on the way and went for a helicopter ride! Hubs told me that he didn't think I would go. That makes one thing I can cross off my bucket list. The ride was a lot of fun, and Hubs got to sit in the front with the pilot.


    We went out to the highest water fall in the country, Multnomah Falls. That was pretty cool too.


    During the days while he was at school, I was able to walk to a mall that was very lose to our hotel. I was also able to take the hotel shuttle to anywhere I wanted within a certain distance. I had heard that I had to visit a famous bookstore in Portland, but that one was too far for the shuttle. But they did have a branch close to the hotel, so I went there. It was in a plaza with other stores like Michaels Craft store. I had a ball.


    If we ever got the opportunity, I would love to go back there. The people were sp nice! Traffic litterally stopped for me when I wanted to cross the street. And we are talking a four lane thorofare here, not just a regular two lane road. But they all stopped, no matter which kind of road it was. It was easier than you'd think to get used to!


    I also kept busy by crocheting an afghan for Hubs; I had brought all the yarn with me from home. While I was crocheting, I found a fascinating event to watch on TV. Believe it or not, I got hooked on a Dominoes Tournament. I loved it! The Jamaican team and the Mexican team were playing in the finals. It was taking place in Las Vegas.


    Next time maybe I'll tell you about another trip Hubs and I have taken together!


   

confession

    They say that confession is good for the soul. So I have one for you today. Those who know me, know that I usually have no use for "reality" TV shows. Except for the house hunting, or home repair ones, anyway. And I do have a secret crush on Swamp People.


    Well, I am now an official fan of Duck Dynasty. Hubs had started watching it, so I was there once or twice when he was watching. After a while, I started getting interested. They are some really funny people. I also admit to a huge crush on Jase. I am currently plotting the demise of his wife, to be followed by the luring of him to upstate NY, where he will be captured and become my secret hidden love.


    I just get the biggest kick out of the whole family! They are hysterical, and it's been a long time since I laughed so much watching TV. Jase is adorable, I love how he enunciates his words and sentences just like his dad. And I love the color of his hair and beard.


    In fact, I like this show so much that now Swamp People seems kind of lame. And that is a shame, because I enjoyed that show. Oh well. The Robertson's are much more entertaining, and that is the main reason I watch TV in the first place, to be entertained. Period.

In which I lose

    That's right, I lost. After not playing Backgammon for nearly four years, Hubs broke it out this evening. We played, as usual, for the championship of the world. And I lost. He beat me fair and square. I'm not sure how many games we played, but he beat the pants off me. 


    Today I had a very strange thing happen. I was texting with a good friend; she sent me a photo of a sweater that she wants to crochet. So we were conversing, and all of a sudden I get a text from a number that I didn't know! It seemed that this person knew me. He/she told me his/her daughter just told him/her that she is pregnant. I went along with it, but eventually asked who is this?


    It turned out she thought she was texting with my friend, who is a friend of hers, too. Weird, huh? Apparently, my friend sent both of us the photo of the sweater, and when she answered, it came to me. Very strange.


    I also spent time knitting today. I'm excited about this sweater now. It's really coming along. I was knitting while watching Rock of Ages on HBO, and doing laundry. I am a multi-tasker!


    P.S. I have to confess, Hubs made me tell you all that he beat me. He threatened to write it himself! But he really did beat me. I think I hate him now. He just read this, and he's laughing.

   

Knitting progress report

    I've been working on Sara's sweater, and I've gotten a lot done. I've completed the two waist decrease rows, and after a few more rounds, I will do the increase rows.


    And that's just about it. I'm knitting all morning, and part of the afternoon. Even some into the evenings.


    Jason and Becky found some roller blades on clearance somewhere, and have been rolling around. We went outside and took some photos of them, but I will have to get their approval before posting any. I'll give them points for not falling, even once!

Adventures in parenthood

    This is my first post in two days. Truly, nothing was going on on Friday. Nothing to report, except progress on the current sweater. Which is a good thing.


    Yesterday, however, we drove out to Andover, Mass. to watch our son compete in a karate tournament. It dragged on forever. We had Jason and Becky with us, and I felt bad that it was so boring. This was their very first tournament to watch. When finally the Master Divisions were called, we all perked up. His being a 4th degree black belt makes him a Master now. He didn't do breaking, but did forms and sparring. His form was excellent, but he didn't place.


    His first two fights were excellent, you can see he really enjoys doing that. But during his third fight (in a row, with only a 30 second break in between, I must add) I saw something I hoped to never see. He got a kick straight to the jaw, and went down like a sack of potatoes. My heart stopped. As soon as he hit the floor, he got up and wanted to continue the fight. But he was swaying, and unsteady on his feet.


     They made him sit down, and he got examined by someone. I'm not sure if that person had medical training, or lots of fighting experience.  Either way, he recovered, and wanted to continue. The Judges stopped the fight, wouldn't let him fight any more, and gave him first place. They gave second to the man who kicked him, but wouldn't let that guy compete in the Grand Championships either.


    I have to say, no matter that your kids are all grown up, that sight can still stop a mom's heart. He did have a whopper of a headache, and didn't want to drive home last night. He and Julie stayed at a hotel and headed home after breakfast.


   I must say, that in all his years of learning karate and competing in tournaments, he has been really lucky. He broke a finger when he was an orange belt, and as a red belt, got his chest wall bruised. But he has never been seriously hurt. Knock on wood.


    Even though I brought my knitting with me, I never broke it out during the tournament. There were like 10 rings going all at once, and there was a lot to see. There were people there from all over the country, and even the world! I saw teams from Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and South Carolina. There were teams in attendance from Canada, Wales, and even South Africa!! Amazing.


    It was very crowded in there, so we spent some time in the hotel lobby just hanging out until the crowd thinned down a little. As the underbelts finished, they would leave, and make more room. So the theory goes. It was still corowded when we finally went in, but we found a place to sit, against the wall, and when things got going we stood on the chairs to see better. Alot of people were doing that.


    All in all, Jason and Becky enjoyed themselves. They learned alot, and would like to see another tournament, maybe a little closer to home.


   

At last, sweater progress!

    The last couple of days, I've been knitting a lot. This evening, I started the third skein of yarn. That's really moving right along. Here is a photo I took, just a litle while ago.

    That's quite a bit done, wouldn't you say? I'm pretty pleased with myself. Let's hope I can keep it up!

possible road trip?

    It's another day in paradise. I worked on Sara's sweater yesterday, got another couple of inches done. I plan on doing the same today. But today, Becky wants to re-learn how to crochet. She'll come over and we can work together.


    Hey, I have exciting news. I may have talked Hubs into taking me to WEBS.  Keep your fingers crossed. I told him that we could get the yarn for his sweater there. A road trip could be fun. It'll sure beat the hell out of the nightmare that was the Bow Hunter Superstore grand opening celebration. PPPFFFTTTT. I have never let him forget that one. He owes me.


    And HAPPY SPRING! (a day late)

Knitting report, snow photos

    I have now had my required two cups of delicious chocolate truffle coffee, and I'm ready to face my day. Yesterday, I frogged the hat that I was making to match my sweater. I had decided it was too big. So I started it again, with twenty less stitches. Here is how it looks now:

    And it has snowed, as many of you know. Here are a few photos of the snow. It does look pretty. I'm very glad I don't have to drive in it.

    I hear it's supposed to change to rain, but that hasn't started here yet. The roads look a little slushy, but the cars don't seem to be traveling very slowly.

No knitting, little sleep - A rant

    I am very grumpy this morning. I am forced to drink my luscious chocolate truffle coffee with "white trash" powdered "creamer" and not real sugar, but Equal. All in the name of love. I wonder if it's worth it. Hells yeah.


    I am also grumpy because I couldn't sleep last night. My legs really hurt, and all I did was toss and turn until about 1:30 am, that's when I got up to read for a while. And of course, just as I open my nook and wake it up, it's power is low. So I had to find a working plug close to where I was sitting, so I could still read. I think I read until 3 or 4, I don't remember.


    Then there's the issue with my laptop. I had it plugged in, but this morning no sooner did I fire it up and begin my perusal of facebook, than it died. Apparently there was no power in the outlet to which it was plugged, and had been plugged into since yesterday afternoon. Who knew?


    So now my morning headache is rearing it's ugly head. And I have no Advil. It will go away, it's just a nagging thing that I don't really want to think about. You see, every one of my medications has headache listed as a side effect. Nice, huh? So I usually live in a pretty constant state of headache. I take some Advil in the morning, and some in the evening. That usually takes care of it.


    And I haven't begun to knit yet. The Boxy sweater is still in Time Out, but Sara's sweater, and my own are with me, as well as some last minute yarn that called to me as I was winding. Side note: Boxy may never get done. I am really pissed at the Malabrigo sock yarn. As I was re-winding it off the needles, it got so tangled that I had to cut it. THREE FRACKING TIMES. (I'm pretty sure it was because the knitting got twisted) I may end up just burning that ball. It will be a fitting sacrifice to the Yarn Goddess.

A knitting disaster and more

   I had one of those yesterday. Remember that sweater I was knitting with Malabrigo sock yarn? "Boxy" it was called. Well. There I was sitting at Karate with my good buds Kim and Jan, knitting away. I stopped to straighten out my knitting.


    You see, it's very curly, and sometimes I think I may have twisted it when I joined it. I was very careful when I joined it, I laid the whole thing our and made sure it was straight before joining.


    Well. It turns out that it wasn't straight. I've been wasting my time, this whole time, knitting away on something that now needs to be completely frogged. Kim was horrified. Me, not so much. I really wasn't in love with it anyway. But now I still have four skeins of black Malarigo sock yarn, and one called Azules.


    I went trolling on Ravelry, looking for sock yarn sweaters. I only got six pages. There were a couple I liked, but I am soooo not in the mood for knitting four flat pieces and sewing all those fracking seams.


    Then I went to Knitting Pattern Central. They also had a couple of interesting looking sweaters. But in order to see each sweater, you have to click on the name of it. As I was looking for sweaters made exclusively with sock yarn, the going was difficult to say the least. I was paying attention to the yarns called for in each pattern.


    I now embark on a mini-rant. WTF is with these designers? Not a single one tells you what weight yarn they used. That's all I want. Oh, and a large range of sizes is good too. That's for my friend Kim, that's her current beef. There was even one sweater that the pattern was only in ONE SIZE, and it was small. I mean, in reality, how many real adult, mature women are a fracking size small??


   In desperation, I went back to Ravelry, and widened my search to all sweaters. I looked at sixty four pages before gving up. Even there, there were patterns written for only one size. To be fair, one was written for an XL. But still.....


    OK, now I feel better, thank you. Well, this changes things. Now I will go back and work on Sara's sweater again, hopefully I will be content with that.

new frustrations

     I didn't post at all yesterday. There just wasn't anything on my mind. Actually, there was quite a bit on my mind, but it's become quite clear that most of it comprises Things To Not Talk About.


     You know that my Hubs thinks I share too much as it is. I have always felt that if someone wants to know something about you, and they have the guts to actually ask you, they deserve an honest answer. But this whole blog thing is different. It's instigated by me, and I'm telling you things you might or might not want to know, or even might not care about. That's why I try to diversify my topics.

   
    Sometimes I talk about crafting projects, and sometimes I talk about my life. I like to tell you stories about my nutty family.  Like, for instance, I recently found out that my Uncle John, who is my father's older brother and is well over 80 years old, is taking a yoga class. I posted a photo of all my dad's siblings last summer, here it is again. Uncle John is the one wearing suspenders.

    My brother once owned a possessed motorcycle. It was a Bultaco, and it did some very bizarre things, even when it was not being ridden. He took it to the local radio station when they had a psychic on, and she agreed that there was a spiritual being inhabiting this motorcycle.  My brother is very good looking, here he is with his wife, at my daughter's wedding.

    I could go on and on. But the most interesting stuff, you will never hear about. It's just too personal to share, and that is frustrating for me. It goes against my "open door" policy. But, if anyone has any questions, any at all, shoot me a comment with your email address in it, and I will answer, if I can.


    There are things going on that even my closest friends don't know. And that makes me crazy. I'm having to learn to keep my mouth shut, even more than ever before. It's making me stop and think before I speak. Which is harder than it sounds for someone who loves to be spontaneous.


    P.S. I hope my good knitting bud doesn't read this until tonight, but I can't keep quiet any longer. My shoes came today!! They are so pretty! I'm gonna wear them to karate later to surprise her. So Kim, if you're reading this, pretend you didn't when you see me later. Act surprised.

A day with mom

     Today I drove down to Fishkill to mom's. Her new apartment should be ready soon, and she wanted some help with last minute packing stuff into boxes.


     Her apartment, now that's a great story. Back at least a year or so ago, mom decided to move to a smaller apartment. She notified the office, and they let her see all the one bedrooms as they became available. She finally found one she liked. Not too many stairs outside, and the laundry room is on the same floor as she is. And it's literally in the building across the street.


     They told her it would be ready at the end of October. So she made all the calls, to get everything switched over. She even had a mover lined up. The week before she was supposed to move, she was in the office for something, and asked about her apartment. They told her it was going to take longer than they expected. So she had to call and reschedule everything.


    Now, she isn't fond of making these kind of phone calls. The next month, the same thing happened, the apartment wasn't ready yet. So she got upset. The nice lady in the rental office volunteered to make all the calls for her, cancelling the whole thing. They were, at that time, expecting to have it done sometime in January.


    Now, here she was, all this time, living out of the boxes that had been ready to move back in October! Here it is, now the middle of fracking March, and I believe they are finally putting the finishing touches on it. The new carpet has been laid, and the new counter tops are going to be put in.


    Truthfully, there had been some kind of scandal at the office, the man in charge had been stealing stuff from the complex, or something. Office and maintenance staff have been fired. So there's not as many men available to work on it now. But the owner himself is now on site, and has personally promised my mom the best apartment money can buy. After all, she's been waiting for nearly six months. It's what they call a studio plus. Basically a studio with a bedroom. She's so excited about it. The bedroom has a massive walk in closet that they made for her.


   Now you, like some of her friends, may wonder why she didn't just leave the complex completely. She really likes it there, it's nice and peaceful, no loud music or cars, or anything. She's made friends with the lady who cleans the common areas in all the buildings. There are the best neighbors there, who clean off her car when it snows, so she doesn't have to. After all, she's 80 years old now. It's amazing. She's getting older, but I'm not! HA!


    So that's why I didn't get any knitting done again today. Excuse #472. Helping elderly mom pack to move.

Shoe / knitting updates

    Well, I did it. I gathered up my courage, waited until Hubs was in a good mood, and told him I wanted the new shoes. I knew he would let me get them. But I didn't want to order them without his prior approval. I feel I should say in my defense, that I darn well know that I don't need his approval, but since I am not bringing any money into the house, he's the one who will be paying the bill.


    It's a courtesy, and he's asked me to tell him when I use the credit cards, so he won't be surprised when the bill comes. If I know I'm going to be using one, I try to mention it to him. Now I can't wait until they come!


    As for my knitting, I haven't knit for a couple of days. I thought I'd give you guys a few days off, since for the next couple of weeks, all I may be talking about is knitting the two sweaters. I wouldn't want you guys to get bored.


    I woke up this morning to the sound of the front door closing. It was after 8 am, so I was freaking out a little. Hubs had left for work almost two hours earlier. I threw on my house shirt, and walked out to see Hubs by the front door. I asked him if he was OK, was he just now leaving for work? He turned around and told me that he had been at work, but got sick, and had to come home. Poor baby! He's gone back to bed, and I am to answer his work phone if anyone calls it. I hope he feels better soon.

Advertising insanities

    I watch TV quite a bit. I have taken to paying attention to the ads over the years. I have noticed that some of them have the small print at the bottom, and I get a kick out of reading them. Of course, they make me crazy too, because someone would have had to complain about the ad for the company to put the small print on. Let me tell you about a few of my "favorites", that really make me crazy.


     Here's a recent one. It's an ad for the big cable company. A young couple is obviously moving. Their living room is full of boxes, labeled with the appropriate room to which it goes after the move. The wife asks where the cat is. A box at the front of the screen starts moving, as if the cat is inside. It's very amusing. HOWEVER, after the first few times I saw it, I noticed that a disclaimer had been added. It read as follows: "Felix is fine. He was never in a box. We promise."


    Now, what special kind of idiot doesn't get that it was a "dramatisation"? I mean, seriously? It's all pretend.....


    Then there's a real oldie, from when the dish soap called "Sunlite", or whatever it was called, came out. At the bottom of that one, they felt it necessary to put the disclaimer "Do not drink, not a beverage" Who, I ask you, would seriously make lemonade with a dish soap just because the ad says it has real lemon juice in it??


    This trend all started with the now infamous MacDonalds Hot Coffee lawsuit. That's when the disclaimers began to appear. Starting with the MacDonalds "Coffee may be Hot" warning. Isn't that kind of a Duh? Would you buy coffee that wasn't hot? I sure wouldn't. I'm still waiting for a coffee shop to advertise that they sell "Luke Warm Coffee, It Won't Burn You!"


    Those are the ones that are currently irking me. I can't think of any others right now. Please, feel free to comment and share any you see! It's all just showing that there really is a dumbing down of America. Those who know TV isn't real will survive, and those who believe it is real will fall to the zombies. A survival of the mentally fittest, if you will.

Not just another Saturday night

    I got home late last night, so no post yesterday. Last evening, I attended my first Bar Mitzvah. It was a very interesting ceremony. The party afterwards was more for all the kids, but the adults had a great meal to eat!


    The photographer did a booming business.The ladies of our Stitch n Bitch group who attended had a group photo taken, and we each have a copy. We got one for our missing comrade-in-yarn also.


   Much to my surprise, my son had also been invited to the Bar Mitzvah too! Not only him, but the other karate instructors, and some of the students who are friends of the Bar Mitzvah boy, Sean. I didn't find out that Jesse was going until about a week before the event. I don't know why I was shocked, he's been teaching Sean karate longer than I've been friends with Sean's mom!


    It was a beautiful day yesterday, sunny and warm. The snow we got earlier in the week is now all gone. And again today, it's sunny and warm. It almost gives me hope that Spring is nearly here, for real. Hopefully the snow season is over, and I sincerely hope we don't get any Spring snow storms.


    I should mention that both Kim and I brought our knitting, but we didn't get to knit, it was just too darn dark in the party room.


    I would like to mention one last thing. I want a new pair of my favorite shoes, Dansko clogs. I intend to discuss this Hubs and get his approval in the next few days. Here is a photo of the pair I covet:

    I think they would look awesome with my Silver Cow Coach bag... Keep your fingers crossed!

another snowy adventure

    Well, we got hit with the snow storm yesterday, last night, and today. Yesterday, it wasn't bad. It snowed pretty much all day but wasn't sticking. But today was another story. We only got a couple, maybe three, inches. But it's a heavy wet snow.


    I had to go out this morning. It was still snowing like mad at that time. It took longer than I expected to clean the snow off the Jeep. I was in 4-wheel drive to get out of my driveway, and down my road to Rte.9. Rte 9 was just wet, so I turned off the 4WD. The side roads were slushy, but not too bad, I didn't slide or slip at all.


    When I got to the Temple, however, I pulled into the driveway, and put the 4WD back on. It hadn't been plowed yet. I spent most of the day in pleasant company, helping my good friend Jan set up for her son's Bar Mitzvah. I've never been to one before, and I'm honored and excited to have been invited!


    We re-arranged the tables a little bit, then put tablecloths on them.  Then time was spent unwrapping cellophane from the candles, then setting them up for the center pieces.  Jan and her son Sean put the favors at all the place settings. There were nice people there from the caterer's and from the Temple itself, who placed all the silverware and napkins on the tables.


    When we were finally done, Jan took us out to lunch at the Brewery, here in Hyde Park. The food was awesome. I'm really looking forward to this event tomorrow. I haven't knitted at all today, I'm ashamed to admit. But it's not over yet. I might have time to get a few rounds in.

Road trip in the snow

    Today, I was bored. I was knitting and making a little progress on the Boxy sweater, but it's a boring knit. And did I mention that I'm doing it in black? Ultra boring.


    I was text messaging with my friend Kim, and it turned we both needed a break today. I had an itch to go up to Tivoli and visit Fabulous Yarns. By early afternoon, she was ready to join me, and off we went! It was snowing pretty good by then.


    We got there, and the whole place was in total disarray! It seems they are in the process of moving to a store just down the block. After we left, Kim and I went and took a look at their new space. We are both very excited, it looks like it will be a bigger, and even more awesome place! We may have to go back after the move is finished, just to check it out. 


    I bought another skein of Malabrigo sock yarn for my Boxy sweater. I felt the black needed to be interrupted, or I might go Kamikaze on myself. The new yarn will make a nice wide stripe of multi-shaded denimy-blue goodness in the middle of the black hole of Boxy. Woo hoo! So I'm home now, and back to knitting. It's still snowing, and I'm bored again...

It's all in your attitude

    I drove to my mom's this morning for a visit. It's not too long of a drive, just long enough for some thinking. This morning, I was thinking about attitudes, and how, if you have a positive attitude on life, positive things tend to happen around you.


   Of course, the negative attitude draws negative things to you. One day, my Hubs and I separately drove the same route to the same place, at about the same time of day. When we talked about it, I remarked about how nice the drive was, I hit only minimum red lights, there were no slow pokes around me; it was a pleasant experience. He, on the other hand, hit all the red lights, cursed out other drivers for their various vehicular offenses, and had a miserable drive.


    Can you guess which of us has the positive and which has the negative attitude? HHMMM? I can't stress enough how much your outlook on life affects you, and everything around you! If only I could get him to understand that. It really is all in the attitude you face the world with. Or, what you send out to the Universe, is what gets sent back to you. Usually in triplicate. Just sayin' is all.....

A series of unwarranted cat attacks

       I am currently nursing a few injuries to my right hand. For some reason, my beloved cat Ozzy decided to attack me when he was laying on my lap. All I did was try to pick him up for a hug. He got my right hand in his mouth, and actually chewed on it. I've got a puncture in the middle of my palm from one of his teeth.


    Then a little while later, I laid my hand on the arm of my chair, and he came up to it, stood on his hind legs, and attacked my hand again, batting at it with claws out. He  scratched me good, that time. I swear, I didn't deserve it. I wasn't saying anything to him.


    Later on, just this evening, Ozzy was behind our chairs, howling. I was patting the back of Hubs' chair, trying to get him to jump up on the arm of the chair, to be petted.
He ran at my hand, took a nice deep bite on the back of my hand, hissed, then ran away from me. I wasn't even harassing him! I haven't seen much of him this evening, since that last attack.


    His whole life, Ozzy has never really been a lap cat. He never liked being picked up, either. He is now almost 12 years old, and has recently taken to jumping up on our laps. You can tell by the look on his face that he's not happy about being there, either. I asked around, and one friend who's had a lot of experience with cats told me that sometimes when a non-lap cat gets older, they suddenly begin wanting to be on laps.


    It was amusing to me that he would suddenly want to be on my lap. He never stays very long, a maximum of ten minutes. And he usually he will only lay on one leg, never across both legs. I pet him, and talk to him, but if I stop, he leaves after a couple of minutes.


    All this makes me wonder what's going on in his head. My hand is sore. Maybe after a day alone tomorrow, he'll be a little nicer. I'm going to visit my mom, and Hubs got called in to work. Hopefully, it won't be a full day for him.  I spent a long time looking through the photos on my laptop, looking for the ones of Ozzy that I know are in there. I couldn't find any.

frustration

    Frustration is really setting in with this project. I've been knitting like a mad woman, and it seems like I'm not getting anywhere. This completely illustrates why I prefer working with heavier yarns and big hooks/needles. It just gets done that much faster, much closer to instant gratification.


    So I'm not really sure what I'm going to do about the frustration. Kim suggested switching back and forth with Sara's sweater. I haven't decided yet. I might just wait until I'm on the verge of poking my own eyes out with the size 5 needle. Then maybe I'll switch over.


    But right now, I'm really sure I need more coffee....

It snowed / cold hands update

     Last night, before I went in to bed, I took a look outside. I turned on the outside light, unlocked the door, and opened it. It was snowing! I was surprised. I hadn't watched the weather channel for the forecast or anything, but it's been so warm it never occurred to me that it might snow!


     Off to bed I went, not knowing how much snow I would wake up to. I was hoping it wouldn't be much, I had no desire to shovel the walk today. Here's what I saw when I took another look out the front door just a little while ago:

 

    Of course, this was with maximum zoomage. But that's all the snow there was. The roads are clear. Not that I have anywhere I have to go today. Actually,  I do have to go to the supermarket at some point, we're almost out of half and half.


    On another note, I realised that I never told you what the Doctor had to say about my cold hands. Apparently I get spasms in the veins or vessels in my wrists, which reduce the blood flow to my hands, and that's why they feel cold. Also why one hand feels colder than the other one.


    The thing that astounds me is the change in my hands. For darn near twenty years, my hands were so sensitive to the cold, that I would start wearing gloves in September, before it got really cold, and still be wearing them through April and into May, if it didn't get very warm. Believe me, it was better to wear gloves than to experience what happened if my hands got chilled.


    That happened just twice. My hands ached. I don't mean just a little. It was so bad, I found myself sitting in my chair with my hands wrapped up in Hubs' heating pad, turned up to HIGH. And the tears were running down my cheeks, I have never experienced an ache like that. I even went to the Doctor, who had no explanation. He had me tested for Arthritis, which was negative.


    But since this new spasm thing, the aching doesn't happen any more. I find that very odd. Our bodies are strange and mysterious things, sometimes. I wonder if it could be connected to The Change?

making progress

    Well, once the correct size borrowed needle was delivered, I finally got to start casting on all those stitches. After 150, I needed to stop and make lunch, or I would've starved to death. After lunch, I carried on.


    I decided to place a stitch marker every 50 stitches, and double or triple count each section before moving on to the next. I even counted all the stitches again, while doing the first row. It was K1 P1 ribbing, and the first of three rows. Only one section had the wrong stitch count, there were 51 stitches in there. When I got the end of that section, I just K2tog. And that took care of that.

    I knit my way through almost the whole three rows of ribbing, before going to visit Kim and Cherub at Karate late in the afternoon. By evening, my yarn holding finger started to hurt. I am not used to using sock weight yarn. By bedtime I had close to an inch of knitting done on this sweater.

 

    I started with doing the first two rows of ribbing back and forth, rather than in the round. I'm just not comfortable joining the two ends together right away. I usually do two or three rows, then join and continue in the round. Then later I use the yarn tail from the cast on to stitch up the short seam. It works for me.