A Weekend of Ribbing

Another weekend where I am at the whim of my 9 year old's social life. But really it was pretty awesome. Saturday was the LEAP sand castle building event. The first one I'd been too, and it was really well organized and lots of fun for everyone.

The kids were hard at work on their organized chaos. The adults from the construction and architecture firms were super kind and hard working with the kids. They even supplied a pizza lunch! Meanwhile, I was able to sneak off with my friend Mrs. B. to explore the food trucks that were there for the grown ups.

We ordered the weinerschnitzel from The Municher, a German food truck. I wish I had photos for you, but I was too busy stuffing face :) We sat on the beach wall and watched out over the ocean and the event below. We watched small children trudge through the sand and I had a lovely chat with a lovely woman.

The beach is not good for knitting on windy days. So the end of one of my Holiday hats stayed in it's project bag.

Fear not, I FO'd it later that evening during another sleepover. I act all put-out that the living room is taken over, but secretly I am tee-heeing in my room with Poirot reruns on and finishing off hats ha!

Tada! The pattern is from Purlbee. It has pleased me greatly. It knit quickly after failing miserably at the Big Rib hat ha!

So that left me Sunday to work on ... stuff. But what stuff? I was so unprepared for the next project I went to swimming lessons without knitting! I know! Catastrophe! I was forced to watch my poor son and another weak swimmer slip and slide over each other every few yards to the wall. It was like watching two otters in a kiddie pool.

So back at the homestead, I needed a project. Yes, I have Aidez on the needles and something must happen with this sweater. I love it so much and have such fear of murdering it. (Story of my life... the running theme paralyzed by fear, no?) So I picked it up and said, I gotta get through the 3" of ribbing for the front sides at least. I am not a speedy knitter, so I must make haste. Goal met. Reasonable progress my friends, reasonable.

Next goal, is to get through 3" of pattern, before I have to figure out how to mirror the right front decreasing to the left. (I realize this may seem obvious to most of you, but I'm not that smart.)

Well, I needed something else ... something new ... so I started some baby knitting pants. (I am not ready to face another round of dog sweater knitting and I actually feel OK with my Work Koffee Klatch Hat knitting progress --> 2 down 3 to go!)

So I did the ribbing for some diaper pants. From my ravelry project page:

It calls for worsted yarn. I thought I was using worsted yarn, but it seems more like DK, so I figured I’d try knitting a size large, because really … who can bother with getting gauge?

And because the needles are tiny and again I reiterate, I am s l o w, I was just shy of finishing the ribbing. Monday evening I managed to and stick in an eyelet row and switch to the larger needles. Alas, the needle part is too long for knitting in the round so I will have to go out and buy a pair of US6 16 inchers. Aww shucks, I have to go to a knitting/yarn store. ;)

Family Quotes: Bananas & What The Kid Says.

On the MUNI, on schedule, on time, on the way to school today, I look in my purse.

There is no banana in my bag.

Me: "Kid, there's no banana in my bag. I know you probably don't care. You don't even like bananas."

(I wait, expecting his spiel about how he does eat bananas, maybe one every 3 - 6 mos. ...)

The Kid: "Actually, I had a banana yesterday."

(Insert my Looney Tune bug eyes here)

Me: "The heck you say!"

The Kid: "I did. I ate one yesterday at Afterschool, only because I was hungry."

Me: "Well, I'm glad you ate a piece of fruit being hungry. You must've been hungry."

Silence.

Me: "Wow, you ate a banana. I have to write it in my diary."

The Kid: Chuckle and snort: "Um, you don't really have a diary ... do you?"

Me: "No, I don't, but I have a blog..."

The Kid: "Really?"

Me: "Yeah."

The Kid twists his face in a way that says soo much.

Me: "Don't worry. I never use your real name."

The Kid: "Good."

This Could Be Going Better

Sort of the theme for the past few days... weeks?

I'll start you off with my mental state and keep it brief. I'm tired of talking myself into coping everyday.

Last weekend getaway/Camping: Equipped, but not fully ... We had no marshmallows and we had no firewood, and the Visitor Center/Ranger station had neither. These things were rectified the following day, when my Dearest ManFriend ventured out the State Park windy road to procure the camping experience. Oh and the first night, there was not enough air in the mattress, and it was too late to add any. We did okay that first night but the rest of the experience was pretty nice. We had one of those lovely long walks up and down hills in the woods. No one complained, everyone enjoyed, the weather was p e r f e c t.

Work: A sense of completion for small projects. Things should be done that aren't. I need to try harder.

Knitting: More on that sense of completion. Hats that are of questionable size. Dog Sweaters that are of every size but the right one. (Don't talk to me about gauge.)

I went with it and realized that I still cast on too much when the brim of the hat began to look like the body of a child's sweater, ha! ahh knitting joy. (This is with the brim folded, the other picture didn't turn out. I wish I had something for scale, but it's huge.)

She's Having a Baby

Goodness no! Not me!

Didn't you just read the last post? I'm a hot mess, I can barely handle what I have!

My friend HM is having a baby.  I'm so excited for her. On one hand I feel like we are having the baby, you know, like I got some kind of rights to it. (This is just a sentimental feeling people, don't worry I'm not going all Lifetime Channel Movie on her. I try hard not to boss anyone outside of my own home, unless it's my sister, because, well ... she's my sister.)

No, no, I get to coach from the sidelines this time, and I mean this loosely, because I can only cheer you on and give you some random opinions about moi (of course). To tell you I got this parenting thing down is bullhockey.

This means 2 things have consumed my thought process regarding baby:

1) Babies are magical creatures. Babies are the new unicorn for me.

I am nostalgic and sentimental for all things. ALL. I creep into my child's room more than the usual, "Are you sleeping ok?" check at night. I stroke his hair and give his soft head a kiss and am practically reduced to tears when I stare at any picture of him before the age of 7.

I read an article in the DailyMail about Orphans in the 1800s in NYC and I basically cried my eyes out, in public, at work, and then donated a little over $250 to the local foster care social worker non profit. (Worker's Childrens Fund)

I made my husband watch the entire Dirty Dancing movie with me ... on basic cable. Yes, I cried.

Having babies reminds me of being younger, maybe lost, but younger. I seem extremely sensitive to the passing of time right now and change. Change is making me loopy.

2) I am obsessing on knitting patterns for smaller people. It's a little out of control. I have a list that looks like I'm going to be knitting this kid a small dowry. I know. It probably won't all happen, but I'm counting on myself to deliver at least 2 - 3 pieces by the time she squeezes that thing out.

What's on the list? Why I'm glad you asked!!

• Knickers - knit pants
• Cardigan
• Shorts or overall style dress
• Booties
• Hat

The patterns themselves are very fleeting. I love one, 1 minute, and then another one more 5 minutes later. I will have to ping some of the lovely bloggers out there for some opinions if I get my act together.

In the meantime like many people, before I start on baby ... I'll work on something for dog! ha!

Wow I'm really screwing this up

I have been trying so hard to be nicer to my child. Does this mean I'm not disciplining him and just letting him roll around in a pile of his own filth? No.

It means I'm not barking at him every 5 minutes and reading him the riot act for doing or not doing things that are actually pretty common for a 9 year old. You know, leaving stuff on the floor, forgetting his flute, not unpacking his lunch, leaving his homework at school, making a mess when he eats, groaning when he has to go to bed, or wake up. The usual. The list makes me cringe.

It's hard. My desire for him to be better than us is going to make him neurotic and I am suffering from such bad anxiety and not showing him how to properly cope that I'm the one who is really at fault. I'm supposed to be the grown up.

Freaking out is just going to make an introvert like him shut down and withdraw more and then rage like southern hurricane. Same sh*t, different year.

Self-awareness is grand, but it's just lip service if I can't change things.

It's also hard for me to let go of something I feel right about. I'm trying to summarize things. I want him to just try hard, try harder.

I think this needs to apply to myself as well.

Knitting Woes Instead of Wows

Can you feel the weight of the gray that is called my knitting sadness? Can you hear the lament of sheep in the distance?

My friends, I bound off the lovely, inspired Color Affection that thousands of projects have come to fruition from. The fabric had stitched up so nice.

But in reality, my end result, sucked only the way a project touched by me can.

This will not make a decent gift.

The three color striped section was pulled too tightly between color changes (horrible technique I know, trust me, the shame is there!). There is pulling, puckering and basically a ruffle on that one end.

I think about it and feel sad.

I know, I know, frog it and try again. The yarn is lovely. But I feel like I would definitely do it again, to conquer it, to clean my technique. On the other hand, not w/that yarn. Like, I can't ... I just can't with that combination. I need a true fresh start.

So do I just donate it or try and salvage the yarn?

I can't think about that right now.

My case of the knitting sads was bad, like sit in a corner, pet yarn with a glass of wine bad. I had Sunday evening to knit, but I didn't feel like I deserved to, or inspired or whatever. I was "afraid" of picking up Aidez and screwing that up to. (Paralyzed by fear ... a running theme, yes I know)

What to do?

I picked up my Wonder Blanket and just knit garter stitch row after garter stitch row, hoping to feel better. I did. That knitting validation was coming back, and just like this project, it's been very easy going and natural. I knit on this basic piece of happiness still more than my other projects combined.

I am still mourning Color Affection but at least I can still knit forward.

The obvious report

I have an iPhone. I don't know how to use it much. I found out there is a maps app this weekend. I also forget I can take fancy photos of things.

If you don't drink enough water, you get dehydrated.

If you don't eat by the time you are supposed to, it can make you cranky, even if you are old and chubby like me.

There is never enough time to knit.

It's very hard to take photos of in progress knitting when it's bunched up on circulars.

Decluttering only works if you actually take the stuff out of the house and not just lined up in your hallway.

Uploading photos takes so much longer than I think, but keeping them on the computer and not sharing ... doesn't count.

Pedometers only work if you put the battery in them, and set a pace.

And that is the rundown of how I am still skipping the obvious.