Spoons & Stitches

Ever had one of those days when you feel like it takes so much to get out of bed that by the time you're dressed you've got nothing left? Of course, most of us have. Today was definitely one of those days for me. I slept badly and woke up worse today. The bright spot that got me up and moving, as usual, was my boys. Today was costume day for Connor. I didn't get any pictures yet, but they should get sent to us early next week. In the meantime you can see Connor with his Cookie Monster slippers. Connor and I had a fun talk on the way in, about what I don't recall. Despite the fatigue, I had a good time at our little afternoon social at work. My boss had a very scary costume: Manager in a Full Suit. If you knew the man you'd know how scary that can be. Lately I've been getting a lot of satisfaction out of work and that is a HUGE improvement for me. It doesn't fix the constant fatigue, but I do feel good know I'm being more effective. The end of the day wa...

SAS is holding their annual employee craft fair on December 1st. I have decided to get a booth this year and sell some of my knitted and crochet pieces. Maybe some of my home-made jewelry, too. It should be a lot of fun. So far I have created a few scarves and two different styles of market bag. The first market bag was the green variegated one below. I loved that color-this photo does not do it justice. I might be almost hoping that one doesn't sell. ;) The other, which I like to call the cow bag because of the black and white spotted look, was also fun. The photo doesn't do that one justice, either, but it's cute. It reminds me of my Grandpa, who worked in the dairy extension program at NCSU for much is his career. When my sister and I were kids he used to take us over to the vet school and let us play with and pet the cows. And no, we didn't tip them. I guess I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for cows. I am working on a little crocheted baby sleep sack too...

So I haven't posted anything in quite some time. The summer was a tough time for me after losing my BFF Daniel on Cinco de Mayo. I remember the week after the funeral I had several dreams about him. Last night I had another. The theme always seems to be the same: he's not really gone. Halfway through the dream I'll always realize that he shouldn't be there, that he has passed away, but we always move on and interact again. It's been awhile since I practiced dream interpretation, but I don't think this one takes much work. I miss him-that's obvious. I particularly missed yesterday when I realized I couldn't go to my taekwondo class and really wanted to hang out with someone. He has been my go-to dude for so long. We could talk about anything, joke about anything, disagree about everything and still be best friends. We were polar opposites politically. Normally you'd think that would make for lots of griping at election time, but it didn't. We had ...

These last few weeks have been a fun time for me. I took on the largest knitting project I've tried so far: a cardigan sweater. This was inspired by a book I read, " Knit One, Kill Two " by Maggie Sefton . Yes, I love knitting mysteries, crochet mysteries and the like. I believe my fellow stitchers would call them "fiber fiction." I call it fiber fiction addiction. ;) Of course, one thing to note is that this particular pattern, the Whodunnit Shell, was actually created to be a shell. However, throughout the novel the main character kept wanting to create a sweater. So, by the end of the story, so did I. I transformed the Whodunnit Shell into the Whodunnit short sleeve cardigan. (I hate long sleeves.) I followed the directions for the back in garter stitch, then split the front into two different pieces. I picked up the stitches for the sleeves and made them in stockinette stitch and finished with four rows of k2,p2 ribbing. I decided it was too short, so I croc...

Okay, I just had to share this story with you. If you're a parent or a child's caregiver, then you know how hard it is to herd a tired child. For ages now my youngest has been in the habit of getting up with the sun-when he waits that long. He's an early riser like I haven't been since college. By the time I get up in the morning, he's already out of bed and on the computer. Oh yes, we are raising geeks, never fear. Unfortunately, this means that frequently he is more tired than he appears. That tiredness can manifest in many different ways. Lack of cooperation is a common one. When Michael tells Connor to get dressed, instead he gets Connor hopping around like a bunny rabbit 'cause it's funnier (at least to Connor). We don't have the inclination to chase Connor-bunny, so sometimes things escalate. The good news is that as days go, this was not really a bad one. We got Connor dressed and he was acting pretty helpful. Then it was time to leave. Usually th...

Okay, in retrospect this is too frickin' funny so I must share. At the time it was just a major pain in the tuckus, but I'd rather laugh now. Wednesday night I was supposed to be at a friend's house to hang out. Someone I hadn't seen in ages and ages. I got a call just as I was about to call her and it was from my beloved husband. He told me the van wouldn't start and would I listen to the sound it was making? I tried, but we all know what wonderful reception cell phones get, so the true sound didn't come through. I kept giving him advice to deal with it, including such gems as: "Turn the wheel and try again." "Pump the accelerator a few times, then try again." "Give it a minute. Now make sure you turn the wheel and the key at the same time." Okay, that last one I just made up, but most of my advice was about that useful. One note of suggestion to those of you with decent regular cars: Do not take advice on starting your car from so...

I finally conquered that project that's been nagging me. The turtleneck dickey . I finished the neck today and struggled with the binding off starting around midnight. I tried to use a regular bind-off method, but that wasn't going to happen wiht this one. I tried it and couldn't get the piece over my head! I had to start over and alter the bind-off method. Instead of the usual knitted bind-off, I added some stitches to it. For every knit stitch that you bind off, there are two additional yarn overs that are also bound off. Basically, knit a stitch, bind it off, then YO and pull the YO through the loop on the needle. Do that twice, then knit a stitch and bind it off, etc. This made a neckline that was loose enough for the piece to fit over my head and be comfortable. Personally, I think it looks good, too. :)

I would call this Project ADD, except that perhaps that might be overstating the issue a bit. Have you ever had one of those projects that just seemed to drag on and on? Then maybe you look and realize that it isn't the project that took so long but you. I keep finding neat and exciting new things to try. I'm 95% finished with the turtleneck dickey, but got distracted by a necktie pattern . No, I have no need to make a necktie. But I will b/c a friend would like it and it's something to do. So I'm trying hard to finish the dickey by the end of the weekend now. I need to before I get completely derailed. One thing I didn't mention earlier this week was my untimely footing Tuesday morning on the ice. I was walking around the van after getting the kids into it. Thank goodness it was after . One foot slipped, then the second. I tried to brace myself with my right arm and that didn't work either. In the end, I fell on my rear end and almost flat on my back. I have to...

So I've been trying to crochet a pair of socks, but that effort has hit multiple brick walls. I got it started, but I clearly made some kind of mistake with the heel. After finishing the heel section I had an additional 20 stitches! So I'll ripping out the heel and starting over. I might convert it to an afterthought heel, but I'm not sure yet. In the meantime, I started yet another project. I'm knitting a turtleneck dickey from a vintage pattern. This pattern is from Coats and Clarks Learn to Knit, Book 190 , published in 1968 and has been somewhat challenging to read. I've been finding it very interesting to see the differences in how things are described in this booklet vs what I'm accustomed to reading now. For example, this pattern will tell you "finish it like you did the other side." Seems normal, until you realize you're left wondering exactly how much of that finishing you're supposed to do. Am I supposed to bind off and sew it up? Or ...

I've never been good at keeping my focus. I have enjoyed the work I've been doing on the log cabin afghan. I'll post a pic soon. However, in returning to the SAS knit & crochet club, the devoted sock knitters have inspired me to try my hand at socks. I found some absolutely gorgeous sock yarn that will look great with my brown shoes, so I got the needles and decided to start. The yarn is Crystal Palace Panda Silk. Unfortunately, it's been a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. So, I copped out and decided to crochet the socks instead. After all, I'm much better at crochet than knitting at this point. It took several false starts and a number of answers from the Crochet Liberation Front ladies, but I think I get it now. The instructions for this basic pattern aren't great (from a technical writer's point of view, anyway), but I figured out the first mystery. We'll see what happens next. Maybe I'll start joining the monthly sock CAL! Or...

A happy new year to everyone! Feliz dos mil diez! Have a wonderful 2010! In the light of looking ahead, I thought I'd start the year off right with another blog. This is likely to become my primary blog over the next year. Year in Review It was a rough year at work and the annual project still isn't over. I can't wait until it is over so I can move on to something simpler. In the meantime, the economy being what it is, I'm taking on an extra endeavor for some extra cash. More on that later. A new focus for the next year professionally will be to publish articles in Intercom and give more presentations at the local chapter and at conferences. Both of my boys have grown tremendously. Connor is now taking Taekwondo. He should get his orange belt soon. Ian has made a ton of new friends in his pre-kindergarten class. He's doing so many new things and he loves to play school when we are at home or in the car. It's one of our new activities on weekends, too. DH and I ...