Wish it was Friday

I'm feeling restless today. Working a little, playing on the internet a little. Ice cream later today.
I'm knitting the shawl from hell. Seems like an easy pattern. Yarn is soft and nice. So I don't know what it is, yarn, cheap needles or the pattern or just me. It's really hard to work on. I'm hoping that when I get a few more rows done it will give a little more and not hurt my hands. If it doesn't I might rip it out and try a different yarn. And, the needles are cheap ones I bought many years ago and have never really used. Sigh. The yarn is so pretty, one of my previous posts has the picture.
Well, my learning to spin has been great. Just a drop spindle but I really love it and now I want more and more time to do it. I showed one of my boys how and now I'm having to get him a drop spindle because we fight over mine. I guess that's good. I want my boys to try everything they want regardless if it's supposed to be a "girl" thing or not. I've never taught anyone to knit so they kind of want to learn but I'm not very patient as I'm not too great at it yet either. I have some old workbasket magazines that have a series of 'teaching a child to knit'. I really liked it because it helped me to knit a few things. It seems there are very few really easy 'beginner' patterns out there for me to find. Or maybe I haven't looked enough. That is always a possibility.
I found out there will be a fiber festival in my small town of Monte Vista. First one ever. It just seems such a coincidence that this year I get interested in these things and suddenly fiber is all around me. Maybe next year I could have a booth or something. I'll have to remember that. I am wanting to volunteer for this one and since I just met the organizers, I would have a good chance of helping them. Volunteer work always seems to be welcome.

Temping

I'm not a temp but I'm starting to feel like one. Normally I work one job in the morning and another in the afternoon at 2 two different desks. But last week I helped in the mail room and this week I'm helping in the graduate office. Stuffing my head with even more information. Pretty soon I should be able to do everything at the college. Just think of the savings that would be in salaries! At least it is warmer up here. And I'm completely alone in this office for the morning. It's kind of nice.
Not much new knitting to report. I've gotten to the toe on the second pink sock but I like to do that all in one whack so I don't goof it up. So I brought a different sock to work on today. The first official sock yarn sock. It's coming out very nicely.
I haven't worked on the shawl past the one row I've done. With so many stitches it takes forever to do. And of course the scarves are languishing. I'm supposed to take a vacation in a couple weeks so I'll take it all with me and perhaps actually work on some of it. The other people going on this vacation (brother in law's family, mother in law) may have other plans. My plans are to rest and relax and go on slow walks and eat some nice food occasionally. My mother in law owns a time-share and found a place fairly close we could go for a week. Our budget has nothing in it for vacations so this is good. I'm thinking perhaps I could look for a yarn or wool store on one of these slow walks as well. I hope there is a pool, my kids will love that.
I haven't done anything with the wool I won yet. I have a free spinning lesson coming to me but I've had the stomach flu and I didn't want to associate learning to spin with the stomach flu. That didn't seem right. Perhaps I'll see if she could show me tomorrow or over the weekend. That would be another thing I could take on vacation.
Sorry no pictures today, what I need to do is take some pictures, send them to myself here at work and then post them. I tend to not blog at home much, too much going on all the time.
My boys are on two different baseball teams which means games every night and sometimes (like tonight) two games at two different places in two different towns even. And they are at the same time. Who thought this was a good idea? My oldest got two hits last night but got out both times. But he's getting better. He's mad they caught the balls but I told him that's how the game works. Kids always want things to go just their way.
The weather here today is supposed to be 79F so i will be walking at lunch, and not just to get something to eat. Summer is here again for a couple days maybe. Until it rains again.
See ya!

Still sick

I'm still sick and still sick of it. Yesterday was a fantastic nasty windstorm and I think all the dust in the air got in my throat because I'm coughing more today. There are many many trees down and power was out a lot of places and there was a fire caused by a downed power line. Hopefully we won't have a repeat of that soon.
I've cast on my new sock yarn and the shawl. The shawl is going to take me forever. 432 stitches each row and I've only done one row. Good thing it's a few months until Christmas. I wish I could do more pictures on here but I can only upload pictures at home. This computer at work doesn't allow you to upload or download anything at all. Seems they are worried about security. I understand I guess.
I'm still wanting to go to a fiber festival which there is one in a couple weeks in Estes Park. But with my no money situation I may not make it.
Oh oh, I almost forgot! I bid on a spindle, wool and a spinning lesson at a silent auction fundraiser for the democrats and I won it. I've been wanting and wanting to learn to spin and suddenly it drops in my lap. I hope to do the lesson in the next couple days so I will let you know about that. I'm excited.

Sick

I've been sick sick sick. I hate it. Mostly just a cough today but it's annoying. I have pictures of my new purchases.

This is 3 skiens of Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Brush and one skein of Sockotta. Made in Peru and Italy, respectively. And I've also bought some bamboo knitting kneedles. I've been wanting to try them. I want to buy some Addi turbo needles next. The alpaca is a shawl for my sister and the sock yarn is just socks.

I've been neglecting the scarves but the socks are coming along. As you can see. One finished and the other with the heel finished. I sure hope they fit my niece. They won't fit me I know.

Tonight I have to work and tomorrow I have to work but I hope to have a little time to relax and knit a bit.

The Cold

That title should be in capital letters. It seems these days we are having a week of warm, a week of cold. It always seems like odd weather but I imagine it's the same every year. Although this May we've had snow the latest I ever remember. I've lived here just over 40 years. Once when I was in college we had about 10 inches of snow on the 15th of May. Well, yesterday it was snowing as I went home and it was the 23rd of May. Pretty much just a dusting but it was cold and blowing and nasty. Today at work everyone has sweaters on. This weekend is supposed to be better. In the meantime I'm drinking hot tea and had quite a bit of hot coffee this morning. I've also developed a notsonice sore throat and starting to be a bit sniffly. It was inevitable I suppose. A coworker is threatening to call in well tomorrow because everyone else is sick. A clever one he is.
My boys are having fun today, tomorrow being their last day of school. One went to a wildlife park and the other is having a picnic at a different park. I envy them getting to do fun things.
I worked on the sock for my niece last night, starting the toe. I got once around and realized that I had the wrong number of stitches. But having frogged the whole thing once already, I was in no mood to try to fix it. Especially since I don't know how. I read blogs of how people can take knitting apart and fix small problems but I have no clue how to do it. I also noticed that I dropped a stitch at one point but it just makes a tiny hole. Someday I will learn how to read the knitting like I can crochet. Crochet still seems so much easier to me. But I've had way more practice at it. I like both.
I'm wanting to go to a fiber festival this weekend not too far away. But I think a lack of funds and lack of support from hubby are going to nix that, just like everything I want to do that's fun seems to get nixed. I need to work on that.
You know, I think I made the tea just so I could hold the cup. *smile*

The Toy

It hides most the time, the toy does. It's hidden under other, more exciting looking toys, under Elmo, under racetracks and stuffed animals. Little do you know that it is actually the most exciting toy ever. Innocuous looking, it's very small and doesn't look like much. But it's rare appearance provokes such outbursts. The boys fight over it like it's gold or precious jewels or an X box. "Mom, it's my toy and I said 'please' so he has to give it to me" How do you argue with that?
The toy in question just happens to be small red plastic tongs. And from the fights and such that happens when the boys find it. It is nothing but THE BEST TOY EVER!!!!!!

More about scarves

The scarves are being knit from Lion Brand Wool-ease. For some reason the darker gray seems softer and easier to knit. Maybe a little less acrylic in it. I also want to finish the dark gray one first because I want those needles to start another scarf. The new scarf is a Lion brand pattern called the road scarf. It looks to have squares of different patterns so I'm anxious to try it out and learn some new things about knitting. But since I don't yet dare to take off a knitting in progress, I'll have to finish it. Anticipation. And thoughts of buying more needles. Foolishly I had once thought that one pair of each size would be more than enough for me forever. How young and silly I was. I'd like to get bamboo needles too. And learn to spin too. And I need a job that makes me a heck a lot more money to get all these things.
The pink socks are waiting. My method of knitting so far consists of making something and then seeing who it fits. So I've decided to give these to my lovely niece. So I've emailed my sister to find out how big said niece's feet are so that I can at least attempt to make the socks a similar size. Probably I'll be all proud of them and she will never wear them. I'd love to get some sock yarn like I've seen on the internet. Join a sock club or fiber club or knitting guild or spinning guild or something like that. I probably wouldn't stay part of it forever but I love learning how to do new things. Life is too short to not try everything that looks interesting.

Trying Pictures

These are what I have in progress as far as knitting right now.

Pink socks with all the color washed out in the picture.

And then there are the scarves. I'll tell you more about them tomorrow.

Fridays

Fridays would be better if I had more sleep and I was happier. Happier is the key. This year has been total crap as far as I'm concerned. Didn't get the job I wanted, personal life is crap. I'm even breaking dishes (not on purpose). Nothing like cleaning up glass all over the floor at 6 in the morning. I've been waiting for something to turn around but perhaps I'm going about the wrong way. I better make something turn around. From reading yarn harlot, I'm very motivated about writing on a novel I started many months ago. It'd be great to write something cool and go on a book tour every couple years. She also inspires me to knit. And to be happy. As crazy as her life sounds, she sounds contented and doing what she likes. I aspire to be that way. I aspire to be that way very badly. I'm trying to head that way. I'm taking geography classes, I'm knitting and crocheting, I'm writing, I'm spending time with my kids, participate in choir and hand chime choir, president of a church ladies group, president of a council at work, looking for different work, wanting a garden, wanting to work more around the yard, trying to go in the direction I want. It's probably (almost certainly) too much for me. But I'll get more depressed if I just sit around and not participate in anything. My husband is the main problem. Drug addict and other problems of his own. It's bad for me to be around him but I can't seem to get away. Maybe if I articulate more of how I'm feeling and thought processes, maybe I can see what I'm doing wrong. I'm need to forgive myself for hanging on so long with him. It's tough. Sometimes it's perfectly clear that I need to get away from him and sometimes it's not. I want to be happy again, or at least feel that I have the chance to be.

More knitting

Someday I'll figure out how to post pictures in here but until then, I'm knitting pink socks at the moment, I had knit the heel but then screwed it up so I ended up pulling it all out and starting over. I've read there are people who can pull it out to a certain point and fix things. I'm not one of those people yet. I did actually knit a lot more on the scarves than I had planned but they are evidently being knitted with the endless balls of yarn because they never seem to get smaller. Originally I had crocheted a poncho with Lion brand gray and dark gray and a variegated red heart yarn but it didn't turn out very good and I knew I wouldn't wear it so I pulled it out and started making 3 scarves instead. They are going along well and since the yarn balls are endless, I should have plenty of yarn.
Anyway, it's cold yet inside even though it's a balmy 70 outside. I'm really tired of being cold and I want some sugar. Last night I did plan ahead by buying poptarts to bring to work with me. But it seems I've neglected to bring some with me. I could go buy some across the street but that just seems wrong.
I'm trying to decide what to do this weekend for mother's day. I've crocheted a nice little bookmark for my mother and it was so easy I think I'll do another one as well. My mother in law might even get one. I can't decide whether to do some work at home or take my youngest son somewhere. His brother gets to go out of town and so he is already doing something special. He would love just to go to Burger King or something. Maybe a visit to the park to eat and play. We'll see

Socks

Remember the socks I was going to knit? I did knitted them. Most beautiful I would say except for running out of yarn at the very toe and so there is a different color blue spot right at the end. I don't think anyone will notice. I wore them all day yesterday and I love the feel of them. So right now I'm making myself work a bit on the 3 (count them), 3 scarves I have in progress before I dare cast on stitches for a pair of pink socks with a slightly different pattern. I'm liking this knitting thing so far.

Odd things from childhood

Last night at church, I thought about a couple of the odd things I remember from when I was a kid. It was just ignorance on my part but there was always a long prayer after the sermon. You stood for a long long time it seemed while all these big words were bandied about. So anyway, in the hymnbook (published about 1940), there was a prayer printed there. About half a page long, it said all the correct things, praying for important things. I was a very methodical kid and followed along every Sunday during the service. Only one problem. The pastor never said the prayer that was printed there. Never ever. I always looked to see. I always waited for it. I always followed along to that point. Now I realize it would have been incredibly boring to have the same prayer said every week. We would have had it memorized and been able to say it along with him. But, I wish he would have said it maybe once a year or so to keep me from thinking it had been a total waste to have it printed there.
The other thing is that I thought one song in the liturgy said "Ho-santa, ho-santa, ho-santa in the highest" When in actuality it said "Hosanna in the highest". I didn't really believe in Santa Claus but thought it a bit odd we would be singing about him in church. Beware, you never know what kinds of strange thoughts your kids are having.

Knitting Blogs

The last couple days I've been reading knitting blogs. Who knew there were so many? And beautiful beautiful pictures of yarn and finished and in process knitting projects. Seems they also like cats as much as I do. It's inspiring and so maybe part of the reason knitters write so much and read so many other blogs. It's also humbling that I can't knit nearly as well as they do but there are so many things I enjoy doing, it's hard to fit them all in. I'm wanting to knit socks and I have some yarn to try them out. I found a pattern that looks reasonably not too hard but we'll see. I'm famous for starting things and not finishing them. Oh, I do eventually but it can take years sometimes. Fibers and yarns are so wonderfully tactile and soothing. Some of the colors you can get are truly wonderful. I'm hoping to go to Taos or Santa Fe or SOMEWHERE this weekend for my birthday and a nice meal and try and find a yarn shop. The blogs I've read make me feel that it's not really a guilty pleasure to buy yarn with no plan in mind, no project in mind. That would make me happy. A delightful thought. These blogs make me want to get my own digital camera and start taking pictures. Maybe a beginner knitter blog. Or maybe I will just keep reading since my blog will probably be some other bizarre unrelated topic the next time I write. I'm famous for that too. nk's to D

Coveting

I had an interesting exchange the other day. A woman that works for me was talking about how she has a neighbor with a nice house. It's bigger than her house and and it seems they are always fixing it up, improving it, making it better. She looks at her house and wants to do the same, there are things that need fixed, improvements she wants to do, but she doesn't have the money to do all of these things. She said she would look and look at this house and wish she could do even some of the things they were doing. Then she tells me, 'One day, I was doing this and realized, 'I'm coveting this house' Well, that's not something you hear every day. Coveting is mentioned in two of the ten commandments but it's not an everyday word. I knew she was very religious because she mentions something like that nearly every time she works for me. She knows I go to church a lot because we've talked about it. So, is God trying to tell me something about my life? Is she trying to tell me something about my life? I wouldn't be surprised if she was trying to hint something to me because I always have in the back of my mind of the stereotype of Christians trying to make you feel guilty and acting holier than thou. But she really doesn't know me that well so perhaps her admission was a really true one and she wanted to share what she felt. Obviously it's made me think about it a lot. I may not always covet the things people have, but maybe the money that it would take to buy those things. This society seems to be made up of coveting people, hence the phrase 'keeping up with the Joneses' Our consumerist society pushes us that way. "It's good for the economy if we buy, buy, buy" I'd like to think I try to be a little bit above that although I long for things sometimes. Maybe the point of this whole thing is that I appreciate someone making me think a little harder and longer about something. I know I don't always have to agree with them, but thinking more about things is really a good thing.

Stamp Collecting

Stamp collecting is one of many small hobbies that I have. To me it has always sounded really boring and something a bunch of nerds do. But, either I am one of the nerds or it's really not. Each stamp is really a work of art, unique and interesting to look at. I can literally spend hours sorting out stamps and trying to figure out where they go in my book. Today I ordered additional pages and a few stamps for my collection. What I really realized is that my grandma used to save stamps for a church project. I think the stamps were sold to a dealer to make the church a little money. With very little effort I can imagine that a few of the stamps I've bought for my collection were actually saved by my grandma over 30 years ago. That is a pleasant connectedness feeling. That makes me happy.

Over specialization

Over specialization has become a problem in everything. Think about it. Channels on TV devoted exclusively to golf, cooking, action movies and women. Now people don't believe they can sing, cook or play sports unless they can do it as well as the person on TV. Are these people missing out on the joy of creating their own music, their own dishes to eat or just getting some needed exercise?