Friday Lovin

I'm so out of the blogging practice.  I've been out of it for years.  I'm still re-training my mind to look for things to blog in every day life.

I remember the hey day of my blog.  It was witty.  There were complete sentences.  There were pictures.  Some beautifully staged, but most just random snap shots of my life.  And of course, there was knitting.

When I get dressed I look at my hand knits and think  "Did I blog this yet?"

The answer is always "No."

I hang my head in shame.

Of course one might think this was a lead-in to the best blog post ever written.  A return to the style and laughter of my former self.

One would be wrong.

This is just another Friday Lovin' cop out post.

I'm loving

turning this

into this

Can you believe I only paid $5.00 for all that yarn!  One sweater turned out to be un-froggable.  But I might turn it into a pillow cover, or a hat or something.  So even that isn't a total loss.

And I'm loving knitting for Knit Picks.  I can't tell you what I'm doing, but I can show you this little teaser.

Don't you love it?!!!!  I do.


And I'm loving Red Lipstick

There is a blog post in the picture.  If you're lucky I'll actually sit down and type it out some day.

Until then I've got the perfect excuse to sit and knit now (see knitting for Knit Picks).  If you need me I'll be on my couch.

Winning the Knitting Lottery!

So Saturday small dog and boy dog got into a fight.

I'm not entirely clear on how it started.  Maybe boy dog informed small dog that she is getting fat (which is true, she is putting on a bit of weight, but so is he, and they were both bone skinny to begin with so a bit of weight is healthy, but true or not it would be an impolite thing to comment on.)  Maybe small dog said something rude about boy dog's Mother (forgetting for a moment that they are litter mates, so an insult to his Mother is an insult to her own.  She is just spastic enough to make that mistake).  Maybe boy dog revealed that he was the one who ripped small dog's favorite toy to shreds.

I don't know who started it.  I just know that the normal sounds of two dogs playing suddenly turned extra growly, extra barky, and they got extra rolling around and trying to grab each other by the throat.

The last time this happened small dog ripped boy dog's ear to shreds.  It was terribly sad and scary.    They usually play like the best of buddies, but that one day someone took something too far and it got ugly.

Since that day we have been very careful to break it up early if things just sound "extra" and Saturday their playing turned "extra."

Usually a verbal command can break it up and they separate for a ten minute time out in their crates.  (My dog training sound suspiciously like my parenting, wonder if that is a good thing or a bad thing.  It is probably the reason my children will all end up in therapy.)

Saturday my verbal commands were ignored.

This was bad.

I did not want to stick my hand in the fray and get bit.  Ordinarily the dogs would never bite me.  Boy dog has an especially soft mouth when he is playing or taking a treat.  But when they're in a frenzy like they were they probably would not realize it was me or my hand.  I wasn't taking any chances.

But I also did not want their argument to end in blood shed.

So I did the only thing I could think of.

I'm not entirely proud of this but I kicked small dog.

She was on top, and acting very much the aggressor (in hindsight maybe the safe money is on boy dog calling her fat).

I aimed for her stomach.

I probably deserved what happened next.

She moved and I kicked her leg with the side of the ball of my foot.

Holy pain.

With a cry I crumpled to the floor.

My agony did what my verbal commands and ineffective kick could not.  The dogs came over to see why I was on the floor.

The children put the dogs in their crates and brought me an ice pack while I sat on the floor clutching my foot and crying.  It hurt so bad.  It all happened so fast, maybe I missed the dog and kicked an invisible brick wall that I didn't know was in my kitchen.  Maybe the angelic guardian of animals held his shield in front of small dog and I kicked that instead.  What ever I kicked, it was hard, and it hurt like you wouldn't believe.

And just like that, on Saturday, I won the knitting lottery!

A foot injury.

It hurt to walk.  My big toe was all numb.  A dark bruise was forming.

My children felt sorry for me.

A bona fide legitimate excuse to sit on my butt and do nothing but knit for the rest of the afternoon.

At the time I worried that I had broken my foot.  But lots of ice and ibuprofen and I was fine by  Sunday with only a bruise to show for my troubles.

I tried to take a picture of my bruised foot.  But it is hard to take a picture of your own foot.  You have to be a highly skilled contortionist.  I am not.  So I couldn't manage a good shot.  That and I remembered how ugly feet are, and how much I hate them, and I just couldn't bring myself to put a picture of an ugly bare foot on my blog, no matter how cool the bruise.

Instead I will just have to show you pictures of my mad knitting skills.

My sweater from the frogged Ravellenic project is in a time out.

I've knit the body.

But I'm not loving the ruffly thing the hem is doing right there.

I probably need to block the sweater to see if I can make that go away.  The reality is I hate blocking.  I love the results, but the actual process feels too much like laundry to me.  And we all know how I loathe laundry.  So the sweater will probably remain in the closet where I have sent ti for time out for a year or so.  Then someday in the not so distant future I will stumble upon the sweater, frog it, and try to knit something else.

With the purple sweater being such a disappointment I turned to something new.

Pork Chop's Christmas sweater.

Or as I like to call the Christmas Sweateres, her Weasley sweater.

I am using the yarn I frogged from the store bought sweater the other day.  Once I got used to knitting with acrylic (I'd forgotten how it has no "give" at all) the knitting has been lovely.

I'm not sure if I'm lucky or offended that I can be sitting right in front of her, knitting her sweater, and she doesn't ask at all what I'm knitting.  I am either very lucky, or I have been relegated to the status of a throw pillow on the couch.  I am merely decorative as I sit and knit.

Maybe I should be flattered?

Friday Lovin'

I'm loving....

•  sock washing day!

Don't all those hand knit socks just make your heart swell with joy!

• DIY facials with my little buddy.

I know the shot is blurry, but that thing on the right is small dog tasting my facial.  It cracks me up. It is a baking soda facial, so it tastes exceedingly gross.  She didn't seem to mind.  I wonder if is a sign that her diet is nutritionally deficient in something.  That or it means she's a dog.

• frogging sweaters.

Not sweaters I've knit.  That breaks off tiny pieces of my soul.

Nope, I'm loving tearing apart store bought sweaters from garage sales/good will, and having a sweaters worth of yarn for $2.00.

Aren't those hanks gorgeous?  I've already knit up some of the pink hanks.  Sure, I used them for my disappointing Ravellenic sweater, but it wasn't the yarns fault that I make it into something fug.

Last night I took these

And made these

(yeah I know there was a black sweater in that picture.  I was hoping I could turn it into some lovely lace weight yarn.  I couldn't.  I'm still learning the fine art of frogging. *sad face* )

Pork Chop helped me with the white yarn and she gushed over how soft it is.  I'm thinking I'll use it to make her annual Christmas sweater.  I've found the cutest pattern for a cabled cardigan I thinks she would like.  I'm thinking of using the brown for a pullover for Meaty.  He calls his sweaters "yarn shirts."  I'm wondering how he managed to be nine years old and not have the word sweater in his vocabulary.  But "yarn shirt" is so cute I don't want to correct him.  My kids are all going to wind up needing therapy some day.  I might as well have some fun with it right?

So that's what I'm loving.  What are you loving this week?

Ravellenic Report

This year for the Ravellenic I was trying to medal in the Sweater Triathlon.  I came really darn close.  Ridiculously close.

I did everything but weave in the ends and sew on buttons.

I didn't finish the sweater because I hate it.  It was not a good yarn/pattern match.  The sweater was too floppy.  The yarn didn't have enough structure at the gauge to hold its shape.  The sweater was destined for the frog pond.  I was not about to sew buttons to a sweater just so I could cut them off.  I came so close to being a champion, but in the end I guess I just didn't have it in me.

Devastated by my failure I searched for redemption.  With just a half hour before I had to pick the children up from school I searched for a reprieve.  It came in the form of a very old skein of knitpicks dye your own sock yarn.

And an Easter Egg dying kit.

I am now the proud medalist in the Hand dyed High Dive!

Don't you just love it!

When my Step-Mom gave me the alpaca sock yarn she said she bought the natural color so I could dye it any color I wanted.  I thought she was crazy.  The yarn was so lovely as it was, just as the alpaca grew it.  But now I'm casting my eye around the house to see what else I could dye, and I am tempted.  I am oh so tempted.

Elated by my success I didn't stop there.  My dear friend stopped by to see me and asked if I had ever finished her headband.  I was ridiculously close.  After she left I sat down, and fifteen minutes later

I was a medalist in WIP Wrestling.

Still, I couldn't stop.  I was a knitter on fire!  (Plus the Greatest was working, so I was all alone and dangerous things tend to happen when I am left to my own devices)

I pulled out a sweater I had knit and hated.

A little after midnight and I was a medalist in the Frogging Trampoline.

I turned around the next day and immediately cast on for something new

I would have medaled in the Cast On Mania Trap Shoot, but I failed to fill out the paper work in time.  Real life intervened and I remembered I had four children, two rabbits, two dogs, a husband, and a house to take care of.  And one of those children was sick.

Man I hate real life.

Bird has decided that when she grows up she is going to "be a Mom and sit and knit all day."

I'm crazy amused and slightly disturbed that this is what she things my life is like.

And I wish that were what my life was actually like.

But I'm getting off topic here.

Ravellenics: two weeks to earn medals and I earned three medals in the last 24 hours, not too shabby!

Joyous News

Day two of school, and I gotta confess, packing lunches is already starting to lose its charm.  Only 178 more school days to go.  178  x 3  (don't mind me while I take a moment to find a calculator since I can't do that kind of complicated math in my head) =  534!  Only 534 more lunches to pack!  Wonder if I can just spend a weekend making hundreds of peanut butter sandwiches and stockpile them in my freezer?  Might be worth it in the long run.  Have I ever shared my deep love for freezer cooking?  I totally should.  I tried it out earlier this year and I am a deeply devoted convert.  A freezer full of meals just waiting to be stuck in the oven at the end of the day?  Heaven!  The only downside is you have to be very organized at the beginning of the process, and at this point in the game I lack the energy for that kind of organization.  I simply do not have the brain power to organize thirty meals in a weekend.  Which is a shame.  We could use a freezer full of pre-made food about now.  We had fried egg sandwiches for dinner last night.  The Greatest made them.  They were good.

But that is all rambling.  I'm really here for one reason and one reason only.

I am here to spread the joyous news.

Have you seen this?

Let me get out my fancy lens and get a closer shot of that for you.

Can you read that?  One more fancy lens and you can really see it!

ALPACA SOCK YARN!


It is alpaca!  And it is sock yarn!  Two of my great knitting loves in one lovely little hank of yarn.

My Step-Mom sure knows how to buy my love.

Don't you just want to roll around in the squishy alpaca goodness?

Why has no one let me in on this secret before.  If you knew and you didn't tell me, well, there's no easy way of saying this but you are now dead to me.  DEAD TO ME.

In unrelated grandchild cuteness - How cute is Sweet Pea working on her "homework"!

She's going to be reading before she starts kindergarten.

Oh Yeah!

First Day of School Baby!

One of my children is not as excited as the other two.

I know how he feels.  I was really sad about school.  Not so much school, but more the inevitable end of summer that the start of the school year brings.  I wasn't ready to let go of sleeping in, and having my home filled with the sounds of splashing in the pool, girls playing barbies, everyone playing lego video games, and all the secret giggling after bedtime has been enforced.  Sometimes I really resent the structure and order that school forces into our lives.

Then the children actually left for school.

The silence.

Oh the silence that descended upon the house.

I'd forgotten the blissful silence.

I'm no longer feeling so sad about the start of the school year.  Of course I still have this partner in crime for one more year.

So  my days can't be too quiet.  That does go a long way to soften the blow.

Today is a half day so we get to ease back into the school routine.  I think we'll take the day very easy with stories and games and no housework.  I might even sneak in some knitting.  I'm down to the sleeves on my Ravellenic sweater.  I'm going for gold!