It's ALIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVEEEEE!

I feel something akin to Gene Wilder's character in Young Frankenstein (or would it be FRANK-en-steen?).  Either way, I'm torn between excitement and dismay.

Why?  Because I published my very first pattern.  I'm so damned afraid that no one will like the thing.  I'm sure other designers feel that more often than not.

But still....you know?

Mr. DJ had a large part in me making this pattern.  He was the one that encouraged me to try.  I was hesitant for one reason, I didn't know if I could.  The thought percolated in my head for several weeks before I had a picture of what I wanted.

And here it is:

 

Made with not even 130 yards of a superwash/sillk blend fingering weight yarn.  It smooshes down into almost nothing.  A soft nothing, though.  I can see someone wearing this on those early spring days that are sunny but windy enough.  Someone tested Gateway in a DK weight.  It looks so cozy, too.

Now it's a waiting game to see how it goes.  What can I say?  I might need some validation.

Out of the suit

I freely admit that I'm a geek.  I'm raising a geek (Imp recently made a LEGO mule from Serenity), most of my family seems to be one flavor of geek or another.

 See, isn't it AWESOME?  The blond is River, by the way.  I think he ran out of brunette wigs.  I'm still not sure why Jayne is a Musketeer.

My current geek?  The Avengers movie.  And Iron Man, and Thor, and Captain America, and Sherlock, and...

I know enough about the comics to truly enjoy the movies.  I want to get further into the comics.  Especially Marvel and Dark Horse.  Batman is about the only DC character that I enjoy.  Beats the hell out of me why, it just is.

As stated many times before I am a knitter.  Something that befalls most knitters (if not all, but I try not to make sweeping statements.  It gets me in trouble) is pretty yarn. 

One such enabler is BeunaSuerte.  She's evil!  She has put out a Shwarma yarn club based on various characters from Avengers.  This month was Genius, Billionare, Playboy, Philanthropist.  Tony Freakin' Stark. 

Now, what color should this yarn be?  Huh?  Like I have to ask.

620 yards of Hot rod red and a flash of gold.  In the words of JARVIS, classy.

PRO-castination!

There's a Netflix commercial (I think) were a guy pretending to be a Mary Poppins-like butler starts singing 'Imagination'.

I've got the word 'procrastination' bouncing in my head to the same tune.  Lucky, lucky me.

It's...annoying to say the least.

My winter/spring semester started last week.  I'm hoping not to fall apart like I did last semester.  Bah.

I've got a pair of fingerless gloves to complete for a friend's kid.  Marfan's and Reynaud's does not sound enjoyable to me one bit.  I offered to knit him some since his hands get so cold and then he can't play whatever game he wants to.

Then there's the scarf I want to knit for myself and possibly two sweaters.  One in a denim blue cotton yarn and the other in some Ssnguine Gryphon Traveller yarn in grey.  I've also got some bright freaking blue yarn for them.  That's yelling to be some sort of cropped cardigan, I think.  I don't know.

And off to homework!  With a damp dog on my bed.  Yay.

Done!

My holiday knitting, that is.  Two hats and a Calorimetry.  Plus a small micro-turtle done in brown cotton.  (Note to Self: Don't knit anything fiddly in cotton.  It makes you cuss)

Sadly, the photos are still on my camera or laptop and not uploaded quite yet.  I'll probably to that tomorrow--along with folding laundry.  Whee.  What an exciting life I lead.

However, I may be able get get one more hat done.  This would be for my baby niece, Sprite.  I'm in no hurry, but it should be a fairly quick knit.  We shall see.

I have a mystery package UPSing its way to me.  I'm not too sure what it is, honestly.  It might be some tea samples, but I'm drawing a blank here.  It's not the right coast for my BPAL order to be shipped from, so...

Christmas shopping and wrapping were also finished up today. 

Frankly, all I want right now is for the car I use to be fixed.  Two Fridays ago, said car decided it didn't like that particular vintage of anti-freeze and left it all over the carport.  Bugger.  I realized this when, after dropping Imp and canned goods off at school, the car decided not to put out any heat and the engine get really hot.

I made the fifteen minute drive back home begging it not to explode on me.

We have yet to hear back from the cranky mechanic.  He's a crusty old soul.  I like him.

It's raining, it's pouring

It's the middle of December and I just heard a couple of rumbles of thunder.  It's also close to 60 Fahrenheit.  That's not right in my book.  It's supposed to be a good twenty degrees cooler at least. 

Although, this does explain the migraine I have. 

I guess I haven't been knitting enough around various family members.  My niece asked me this past Sunday for a knitted hat for Christmas.  Green and with cables, thank you very much.

Now, I just relieved a skein of Sanguine Gryphon's Bugga!  But there is no way I'm using that yarn on a kid that attracts dirt and smutz like a magnet.  I refuse.
 
So, I trekked up to my LYS and snagged a skein of Universal Yarns Classic Worsted.  This is the same yarn I used on Imp's never ending scarf.

Violet, my niece, will get an Owlie Hat. 

I promised my sister-in-law, Bubbles last year that I'd make her a calorimetry.  I don't know how many times I tried to figure that so simple pattern out, but couldn't get it.

This year?  Dude....

So I made her one.  One that's too small.  GAH!  Thankfully, I have enough of the Berrocco Ultra Alapca to make a bigger one, which is where I'm heading to in just a minute.

I'd rather be sleeping, though.

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. ~C.S. Lewis

I'm avoiding my A&P work for a little bit.  All the abbreviations for various hormones are swirling around in my vision.

Instead I've been pondering what to make with my single skein of Road to China.  Then I've wondered if I should snag one or two more skeins....  That is a Gollum yarn if I ever saw one. 

I know I want whatever I make with it so be next to my skin.  I'm thinking of another pair of fingerless mitts since my hands get so freakin' cold.  Or maybe a cowl...but probably the mitts.  They're something I can do in class if I want.

Speaking of fingerless mitts...one of my classmates in my ASL class wants me to make her a pair.  In black.  That's fine, but d'you know how hard it is to find a black superwash yarn that doesn't cost an arm?  I'm going to have to talk to her and see if she wants easy to care for or not-so-easy-to-care-for.  It doesn't matter to me.  I just want her input.  Although, I did find some Cascade that should work for the superwash.

In other news in my not-so-exciting life, I ignored yesterday to the fullest extent that I could.  It would have been mom's 59th birthday.  I refused to deal with the world.  I fully believe that I was allowed to do so.

Then there's the shed.  In our backyard, we had a metal shed that was put up when I was about six or so.  The only thing that was holding it up was the rust and everything crammed inside.

Wednesday, it was only the flotsam inside holding it up.  The area had wind gusts of 40 mph.  the shed just gave up.  Dad was planning of replacing the shed, y'know, AFTER the winter.  Momma Nature had other plans.  Ah well.

It wouldn't have been so bad if the car I use didn't decide it needed a new battery and a tune-up.  When it rains, right?

I got some new tea samples this week, too.  From Harney & Sons.  For only two bucks for a sample, I didn't think it was a bad buy.  I got three; Irish Breakfast, Cranberry Autumn Blend, and Holiday Tea.  I've only tried one so far, the Cranberry Autumn.  It's a sweeter tea.  I don't need to add any sweetener to it.  The smell is juicy and red.  It reminds me of burning bushes in full fall color.  However, I don't think I let it steep long enough because all I could really taste was the water.  Or maybe it's just a really mild tea.  I don't know.

It did remind me of Puck.  I'll give it another try.

I've been debating on getting a Kindle.  I'm really interested in the Fire, but balk at the price-and it's one of the more..economical ones.  Maybe I'll go for a mid range one.  I need to start reading a little more.  Or get into audiobooks.  I don't know which yet.

Back to the books.  Meh.

Why did I procreate?

Oy.  My baby niece had definitely cured me of wanting anymore kids.  Imp is more than enough.

Almost three hours of screaming.  We think she has colic like my brother did.  I didn't care for that then, and now is no damned different.

Somewhere in this house is a picture of 23 month old me sitting in a white tee and diaper, holding brand-spanking-new-Brother dressed the same and screaming the house down.  Evidently the look on my face was one of "return this noisy thing from where you got it.  RETURN NOW".

That explains our relationship to a 't'.

In other kiddie news, Imp now has his glasses.  Here's hoping he's not teased like the way I was.  He's also in band.  Playing drums. 

See?  There's his brand new, ooh it's so shiny snare drum.  With that stupid never ending scarf.  I finally finished it and promptly did a little victory dance.  

The pattern I used called for knitting the thing on DPNs and then adding fringe to the ends.  Well, there's no way on Gaia's great green tukus that I was going to make a five foot scarf with fringe for a ten year old boy.  Nope.  Not gonna do it.

So, I made it in the round and added a blanket stitch edging to both ends.

My mistake was making it on DPNs.  I should have just made it on straight needles in a ribbed pattern.

I learned my lesson well.

I almost strangled him with it, too.  Imp has a love/hate relationship with school.  He downright loathes to write.  A paragraph may take up to three hours.  Add into this that like any kid he will lie about having homework done.

I've fought with his school district for three years trying to figure out what there is wrong.  Imp can do his work, he won't sit still for it, though.  Last year I asked the school for an IEP.  Which, by state law, they have to provide, if I understand right. 

Except, they didn't.  They instead told me that if Imp does have a problem, then it's not severe enough for them to get involved.  I disagreed.  My mom-stinct was screaming that there's Something Not Right.

It's not bias when I say Imp is extremely intelligent.  He can focus when he wants to.  Cripes, in third grade he was reading Harry Potter with now help.  I think he was the only third grader in the district that could!

I had also asked his doctor about getting him tested to see if he had a learning disability, because I wanted to help him get the tools he needs.  I was told not to give him soda.

Oh, for the love of-!  Look, I may look young, I may have been born blonde, but I am not an idiot.

I went to the local university, which had a kiddie psych program and that would test him for me.  I didn't want to just arbitrarily slap a label on Imp.  I wanted to help him.

We're still fighting the homework.  He'd rather talk or bounce around.  I honestly think that he's just bored out of his skull.  I just have no idea how to get the school district to listen to me.

I need a drink.

HA!

HA!  I'm conquering cables!  This is fun!

Pictures will be available after this project gets shipped off.

I'm doing a happy knitting dance.

No tin roof here. Just heat and ick

It's hot, miserable, and sticky.  In other words, pretty much a typical summer in this area.  Blech.

I'm almost done with Imp's Gryffie scarf.  You can see one end in the picture.  I've got one and a half blocks of red, and one gold stripe.  After I block the silly thing, I'll blanket stitch the ends up with more gold yarn.

I've tried the gauge swatch with my lace yarn at least five different times, I think.  Halfway through the stitch count goes wonky on me.  I can't quite figure out why.  I'll have to really take a look at this latest swatch and see what I've done.  This means tinking back a row or five.

I've done it so many times, that I've got the lace pattern memorized!  Maybe that's the problem.  I've gotten complacent.  Huh.

Now if you excuse me, I've got about four new mosquito bites to ignore.

I'm tied to you like the buttons on your blouse--Warren Zevon

It's still hard.  It think it will always be hard in some ways.  I walked through the living room one day and smelled mom's cigarette smoke.  She quit smoking true cigarettes almost a year ago.  The other day Imp said something and I could have sworn that it was mom calling me.

Mom would have wanted us to keep going and to smile, though.  Even at the end, when it just plain hurt her to move because of he fibro and OA and everything else, she tried to find things in life to enjoy.  It was hard, but she did try.  Not always successful, but she did try.

I figure that the best way to remember mom is to live my life to the fullest that I can.  To tell the stories of her.  To get the tattoo that she wanted.

The woman that introduced my parents to each other back in '74 was mom's sister in all but blood.  She was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor right around the time Imp was born.  She was given six months to live.  She made it damn near six years.  Mom was devastated that she couldn't make it to South Carolina for her funeral.  It broke mom's heart.

I know that those two women are together somewhere creating havoc and cackling like the two of the three witches for 'McBeth'. 

Right before mom came home from her first and last chemo treatment, I had gotten my first yarn from the people at Sanguine Gryphon.  Some lace weight Mithril in their Red Dragon color-way.

When I saw it, I was thinking of mom's sister:

The picture doesn't really do it justice.  This is red.  Hooker red.  Get in your face, take no prisoners red. 

See, the lady in question could not wear red of any shade.  And it drove her batty because she loved the color.  Mom and I can wear red any day of the week and look wonderful in it.  My aunt (she was married to a cousin, but we called them aunt and uncle) wanted to hate us, but couldn't.  She groused instead.

I don't know why I thought of her when I saw this yarn om the website, but I did.  I've got a pattern in mind.  I'm going to knit it for me, but these two women, the two who taught me that old didn't mean stodgy are going to be in every stitch.

Hey Mom?  Go have fun.

Knit one, breathe two

I have a feeling that I'm going to be knitting quite a bit in the near future.  It keeps me sane.  I'll need it.

Mom's back in the hospital, she does have cancer and has started chemo treatments.  I think.  I haven't heard anything.  I'm not sure.

Dad's cleaning everything in sight.  I think that's how he's coping. 


I can't say much.  I'm knitting.

Imp's Gryffie scarf is about halfway done.  I'm really not liking that stupid scarf.  But it's my fault for knitting the thing in the round.  If I've done my math correctly, that silly thing will have well over 22,000 stitches by the time I'm done.  And over two skeins of red yarn.  I shouldn't have to use more than half of my gold.  I'm hoping, 'cause I haven't found more of that color.  Oops.

I had to stop knitting on The-Scarf-That-Just-Keeps-Going for about a month, month and a half or so.  I couldn't stand looking at it anymore.  I was dreaming of the damned knit stitch.

So, I went on to a couple just add gratification projects. 

Imp and I usually head out to the local Renn Faire each year (this year, not so much), and I have a corset that I wear quite proudly.  I have a shelf-life in the thing, too.  Hee!  That being said, I loathe purses like no one's business.  I usually carry my cell, debit card, ID, and whatnot in my pockets.  Only with the corset, that's really not possibly.

I do have cleavage.  I can carry my cards in there.  Which I have done and then gone fishing for them much to amusement of the Rennies.  That doesn't bother me.  They are very polite.  Perverted senses of humor--which is why I fit in with them, but polite.  What I don't like is the fact that I can read my debit card number from my chest.

So...I made a bag!  It's big enough for my cell, my camera, my cards, my sunglasses, Burt's Bees chapstick, extra batteries, probably some Aleve, and probably some sunscreen.


I had gotten the yarn, some Berrocco Lustra from a swap over on Ravelry, and had no idea what it would grow up to be.  Literally no idea what so ever.  Then I realized that the blue of the yarn would pick up some of the blue in my corset.  Score!  Since I knit this up at the college, it took my a little longer.  Maybe two days.  But I only knit for 45 minutes to an hour at a time.  So...

My next Just Add project was a Momma's Day gift.  Mom adores turtles.  We have a menagerie of turtle figurines out in the living room.  Imp and I have fun looking for unusual turtles to add to her collection.  So when I found a pattern for a teeny-tiny Mirco Turtle...well, yeah.  I had to.  Add to the fact that she also loves blue, and I was set.  See: 

I call it 'Talullah'.  Grandma saw it and wants one in brown.  I have some Knitpicks Comfy Sport cotton in Fedora, so that works.  She's getting one.

But I'm going to get back to my evil, evil scarf.  I think that scarf unravels itself some each night.  I really do.