Friday, January 26, 2007

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

*snork!* Wha? Uh, I think we should definitely work on the inverted yield curve theory on a six week sliding…

Oh. Heh heh. It’s you. Hi. I thought it was…someone else…like, say, my boss, who is probably wondering if I still work for the company or have gone on permanent sick leave.

People, this has been the worst run of ill-health to date in the Den. My husband and I went over recent events in exhaustive detail and have concluded that in eight years of parenting, the last month has been the hardest on the sickness front. It wasn’t so much the illnesses themselves as the fact that everybody got it, but not all at once. Each person had two to four days of being sick…overlapping by one day at the most. And it recurred!

We haven’t had a full night’s sleep in three weeks.

But we are slowly returning to what passes for normal around here. I took Captain Adventure to daycare yesterday morning, and lived in trembling fear of my telephone. It jangled me out of my reverie five times yesterday morning, and each time I stared at it with intense hatred.

So help me Dog, if this is daycare calling to say he had a bout of Explosive Diarrhea or something…!

But it wasn’t. My mother and my mother in law, both checking on Captain Adventure, someone looking for Best Buy, Gottschalks with exciting information about my account (memo to me, close the @*^&@ing Gottschalks account) and a fellow mother who is selling Avon (remind me that I would like to express my appreciation to a Certain Teacher for giving out our home phone numbers to all the parents in the class).

You know what? I just this minute realized I have something new to be grateful for.

In the last few weeks, I have been approached by numerous women selling Mary Kay, Avon, Amway, laundry and body soaps, aromatherapy, Pampered Chef and yes, the old standby, Tupperware.

But I have not once been approached by someone clutching a briefcase full of yarn. “Do you want to have a Wool Party? It’d be FUN! Plus you can get a free skein of Koigu if you get fifteen guests…”

People, there would be sixty people handcuffed to my furniture that very night. And also, every credit card I have would be maxed out plus also my Knit From Your Stash thing?

Right out the window.

So yes. I have much to be grateful for. Koigu does not have an ‘independent consultant’ trade; nor does KnitPicks, or Halcyon Yarns, or Webs.

This is a happy thing.

Unlike this:

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Yeah, remember that? It’s Eldest’s sweater. In almost a month I have…finished the second sleeve. And, uh, that’s about it. At this rate, it will be June before the thing is finished – just in time for her to never actually wear it, because by the time it is cold enough for the child to want a wool sweater on, she will be two sizes bigger.

Children and the growing thing, what are you gonna do?

The holdup is actually my sewing machine, which I need to use for the steeks on the sides (these being the Norwegian style steeks, with no extra stitches on either side of the cut, a machine stitch is kind of necessary to keep the yarn from unraveling when you {gulp} cut it). I have nowhere to put it right now (let alone use it), due to a certain Clutter Issue that has taken over all my craft-worthy surfaces. I’ve been chipping away at it, but in terms of actual headway…well…eh, not so much. Not to mention that the instant I clear even a one foot circle of space, another twelve pounds of crap lands right smack in the middle of it.

So, while waiting for the clutter to magically vanish (ahem), I cast on this:

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This is a sweet pattern, very easy, and a nice break from the wee little #1 DPNs I’d been using for all those socks. It’s in Lion Baby Soft, so it’s no, really machine wash and dry, 60% acrylic, 40% nylon. Very soft, very warm.

Tangles like the dickens, though.

I have a dream for the weekend. I see my sewing machine running the stitches down the sides of this sweater, so I can cut the steeks, sew in the sleeves, and do the neckband on this sweater. I see this baby blanket finished. And I see me digging through my stash picking out what-all is next.

OK, so, it isn’t a Nobel Prize winning kind of dream. But it’s all I got at the moment, so I’m clinging to it like glue.

May you all have a fun and germ-free weekend…

2 comments:

Very Herodotus said...

All I want this weekend is to go to my favorite local spa and sit in the steam room for 5-10 minutes. Aaaahhhhh warmth! Aaahhhhhh moisture! If there was a way to combine scrapbooking with a steam room, I'd be in My Happy Place. But, scrapbooking and steamrooms don't really coexist peacefully, now do they?

Amy Lane said...

I just gave my sister about 40 lbs. worth of quilting books for this VERY reason. My sewing maching and I are going to part ways until the little ones are big enough to not A. hurt themselves on it and B. not destroy the walkable parts of the house whilst I'm trying to clear away the detritus on the perimeter that is shrinking my house on average of 6" a month.