Wool Over My Eyes

I think back to when my older girl was this age, just before I had my second, and I was working full time yet I was able to get everything done.  It’s SO much easier to work full time in one place, one office, one job, and then pick your kid up and go home.  Now I’m always moving.  The dream of going to yoga class even once a week has slipped from my mind.  Maybe next month.  I did walk yesterday for a half hour while my Little One rode her bicycle.   Maybe next time I’ll ride mine too.  Ever since last month, my FIL’s companion passed away and there have been dance recitals and mother visits and finals and fights with the teenager…We have a calendar hung up with everything written on it so I can have a visual of where we all are each day.  The girls want to take dance class over the summer too, so there’s more events to drive to.

Today is a half day for the Little One and tomorrow is only 2 hours.  Then back to camp schedule next week.  But first this weekend!  We have a farm breakfast on Sat morning (weather permitting) and then a pool party at 10.  Sunday we’re planning on going to the local aquarium for an Otter Event.  I don’t know, I’ll let you know what that means later!

Have I been knitting?  Why, yes I have.  I FINISHED the Tilted Duster.  I said this is ridiculous.  I finished the first one in no time, and the second took me half the year.  I had been on the first sleeve and once I put my mind to it, I finished it right up.  It feels a little large…but I haven’t blocked it yet or worn it with a heavier top like I might in the winter.  I had 2 feet of yarn left after I sewed up the seams!  Whew.  Call that tight!  I enjoyed the finishing now that I know how to sew an invisible seam!  Thanks to EZ and Lucy Neatby.

I whipped up another Ribs and Ruffles scarf out of the Misty Alpaca that I bought on my yarn crawl.   My mom had seen the scarf and wanted one.  I finished my Marina Piccola socks made from the Scout yarn of the same name.  So many of my socks have holes in them (and haven’t been repaired) that I need more!  I’ve not tried mixing nylon in with my yarn for the heels, but think I may need to do so if I’m wearing my socks out.  I’m working on my Alchemy striped scarf, also yarn from the yarn crawl.  This yarn is so lovely, I just love to knit with it.  It’s going to be a long thin scarf and I can tell I will wear it often.  But then I will have the issue of no hat and gloves to match.  The scarf is browns and rusts and beiges, so I think I can work out something by the winter.

I’ve been feeling so dissatisfied with my knitting so I felt I needed to work on my UFO while I dealt with my inability to finish anything and the constant need to cast on something new.  I had started 3 different pairs of socks but am unhappy with them.  2 of them are STR and they look like mush or vomit.  But they looked so pretty in the skein.  I think they would work in something else so rip.

I had picked up some SWTC Bamboo on the yarn crawl and actually cast on for the Clapotis again.  And it looked good.  I’ve seen the Clapotis in that yarn finished and it’s lovely, but silly me ripped it out and tried the yarn on the Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl.  No.  I actually have ordered 2 skeins of lace weight for that.  I don’t have any lace weight in my stash.  Isn’t that amazing?  But I am buying the yarn for a specific project and hope to use it in that project.  I am frustrated with my stash.  Yes.  Sock buying is easy.  One or two skeins and you know you have enough.  But I bought some great yarns and only bought one or two skeins and they’re not enough for anything!  But I have some mixing in my future.  I have some projects on my mind.

I guess that’s what I’m going to aim at this year.  Use some of my stash and finish things up.  I had bought yarn at Rhinebeck for a sweater for the Little One.  I started a bottom up pullover but you know what she wears all the time to school is a cardigan, so maybe that’s what it should be.  But it is such a soft and squishy yarn, maybe it would be nice to have a special soft pullover.  I’m not ripping yet!  I have about 5 inches knit and it is such easy mindless knitting….if I put my mind to it I’ll get it done.

What to do with the Big One.  What do kids do when they’re not at work or hanging out in town at the park?  She wanted to go to a friend’s house and then lied about a parent being there.  Today she wants to go to the beach with some kids.  Fine, but what if it rains?  I don’t want them all in my house.  But that’s probably the answer, to have a place where they can hang - but we don’t have a den type place like some families, and I can’t stand listening to the talk and the stupidness.  I have no patience.  She was such a sweet little girl, what happened?  Was I ever that idiotic?  Probably.  I hope it passed.

Pictures next time if I can get myself motivated.  I did update in Ravelry some of it.  Have I mentioned how much I like Ravelry?  I don’t get into the forums much, there or on Knitter’s Review.  Maybe I haven’t found my place.  I’ve been listening to some podcasts, and tried some new ones because others were irritating me and were just wasting my time.  I’ve stuck with my favorites.

Creative Mom

Craft Sanity

Cast On

Sticks N Strings

Stash N Burn

Y Knit

Knit Picks

Ready Set Knit

I still listen to L & V but….come on, let’s get back to knitting.

And She Knits, but I’m kind of getting irritated with her.

I started listening to APM: The Splendid Table which is great.

I downloaded a whole bunch of new podcasts and then one woman whose voice was HORRIBLE was going on and on about how she’s lost her job.  OK, she was in the mortgage business.  But she didn’t give people loans they couldn’t pay.  They qualified…. Sure.  So you know she was earning a bunch, but now she’s at home and the little boy still goes to the babysitter because if she gets another job, she’ll need that daycare.  But now she’s spending money on refinishing their basement for a home based crafting business and then her cat got sick and she cried and the vet felt badly and they asked for a letter proving that she was laid off and they gave her the operation for free and then she goes on to talk about the yarn she just bought!

This is what made me angry about L & V.  Don’t tell me how broke and destitute you are out of one side of your mouth and then about the yarn you’re buying.  You can do it but don’t expect charity from other people.  I can’t even remember the name of the podcast, but I decided that it wasn’t good for me to listen to her.  Ugh.

What do I want from a podcast?  To be entertained?  To be informed?

I’ve been listening to books a lot lately, right now it’s Good Grief by Lolly Winston, which is ok, but I expected it to be deeper.  I like the way she wove humor into the grief, but it’s seeming too pat, with the boyfriend and the new business.  It’s short so I’ll be done and on to something new soon.    I just finished listening to The Girl With No Shadow by Joanne Harris.  Lovely.  It was a continuation of Chocolat, and I just loved her words.   I’ve been trying to finish Julie and Julia in print form and it’s not the captivating read I had hoped it would be.  I also started The Last Chinese Chef which is more captivating so maybe I should concentrate on that one.  Gah, it’s just like knitting isn’t it?  They’re both inter library loans so I have to choose.  I guess I’m going to read the good one.  The other is available in my library but was out.  But print books do have their charm.  It’s just that I can’t knit while reading!  But sometimes it’s ok to just do one thing at a time.

On to my day!

Yeah, I’ve been wondering where I’ve been too.  I find that I need to close ranks once in a while and gather my strength for the upcoming battles.  No real battles, just the day to day small ones.  Sometimes when I break things down into little pieces, I feel good.   I try to give myself a little pat on the back, (who else will do it?) when I see that I’ve gotten some things done.  Then I turn around and see how overwhelming it all is….where do all those piles of toys and books come from?  My husband came in yesterday from work, I had some leftovers from the night before and I had cooked some ribs and made a salad, and he came in with the Big One with 2 roasted chickens from work.  I’m not going to turn that down, but all of a sudden I was feeling like, wow, there’s too much food, and then I saw that he had taken the chickens out of a brown paper bag and tossed the bag on the kitchen floor.

Are you planning on leaving that there?  Oh, no,  He handed it to my daughter and asked her to put it away.  Ha.  It’s constantly like this.  I grasp for some time in between things I HAVE to do and things I WANT to do.  The Little One had a birthday party to go to and I just longed to be able to sit in my yard and knit and listen to a book.  But instead, I did houses, picked up some papers, and did food shopping.  I did finish a sock over the weekend, so that was productive!

Over the past 2 weeks I finished the second sock on my River Rapids sock, made with Fiesta yarn that I think I got from the Loopy Ewe.  I made a pair of Artichoke socks with my second skein of Shibui Sock.  Artichokes are very much like Monkeys, btw.  I cast on for Kate Gilbert’s Marina Piccola sock with the yarn I got with the pattern from Scout.  It is one of those sock patterns that I am unable to memorize, so that became the thinking sock, the one I needed to sit by my magnetic pattern board.  So of course I cast on another one using STR Rocktober.  I have cast on at least 5 different patterns with this yarn, and frogged them all.  Finally, I cast on for Jaywalkers, because that’s what it needs to be!  I searched through Ravelry for ideas, but really that’s the pattern for multi colors like that!  I need some solid color sock yarn, and then I can do some mixing with the multicolors….

Yeah, I am working at knitting what I have and that seems to be working out.  I STILL am working on the last sleeve of the Tilted Duster (the second one) and another cardi that is at the plain stockinette stage right now.  Problem with cardigans and stockinette is the return row all purling.  I don’t dislike purling but with a cotton yarn, the tension is sometimes different.  I think it’s subtle enough that blocking with take care of it, but it bugs me.

Again, it’s time for my Little One’s birthday and again, I am not prepared.  I have not sent out invitations, but I’ll contact the parents.  It’ll get done.  The girls have been busy and happy so that’s good.

One of my daughter’s friends had a brother who was killed in a car accident a few days ago.  He just drove her home 2 weeks ago, so I’m sure that has her a bit freaked out.  I’m trying not to picture her in the car with him, it’s too scary.  He was 21 I think, and the accident was just that, and accident, and probably inexperienced driving.  I don’t know all of the details, the teenagers are really focusing on that, but all I can think of is his parents and his brother and sister and their pain.  To the teenagers, it’s another drama.  I’m not saying that they’re not affected, I can see that my daughter was very thoughtful and tender toward her sister this weekend, but it affects her differently than it does me.

He was one of the volunteers at my younger daughter’s T-Ball league, his mom ran it.  I was just sitting with him pouring Gatorade last weekend.  And today my daughter has asked me to go to the wake with her.  Her girlfriend M, who I must admit to not liking or trusting, wanted my daughter to go with her and her mom, and my girl told her she wanted to go with me.  Aw.  Of course M was pissed at her.  Whatever.

I am not a close friend of the family.  Hardly a friend at all.  I know the mom and the daughter because she was in my daughter’s class.  She had been to my house in the early grades for birthday parties, but they were not close friends, but like each other.  I like her mom.   I feel odd going to the wake, but then I thought, if it were me, I would like the acknowledgment of my child by others…I don’t like to think about this.  I think I could find the strength to get through it if I were to lose my husband.  I certainly don’t want this to happen, but feel I am more prepared to be alone and deal with it than if he lost me.  But to lose one of my children is just unimaginable.

So who do we cry for at these moments?  The child, the parents, or our own pain or imagined pain?  I just want to hug my family and keep them safe and with me.

I don’t have the energy to put my pictures up today, so I’m going to just let this be.  I’ve been pushing the energy of this boy’s death away to protect my heart, but I’m in for it today so I should just let it be.  There’s nothing I can offer to the mom but my presence.  I’ve been through this before about 10 years ago but with close friends, and a boy I had known for 10 years.  He and his cousin and a friend died on Father’s Day a week before high school graduation.  Of course to add to the horror, his dad was one of the first responders at the scene.  That wake was the most painful (of course not counting my father’s death) that I had ever been to.  And I’m remembering that I couldn’t find any words, me who talks SO much.  All I could do was hold my friends and their daughters.  Their lives have gone on, but what an open wound remains.

I’m going to get my sweet little one moving, and then go to yoga class, it’s one of the days I need it, and then work and the wake.  One foot in front of the other.  It’s an easy, wonderful day for me and one of the worst days of another mother’s life.

When will I have finished objects instead of new beginnings? I know I’m not alone in suffering from startits, but I have been feeling like I’m needing to get focused on finishing. I had bought a sweater’s worth of Calmer at a recent yarn sale - noticing that what my stash consists of is many, many single skeins. Some doubles, but not really bags of a sweater’s worth of yarn. This is Amy King’s Sprout, which I like in it’s longer length.  Then I realized that my SIL’s birthday was coming up in early June….we had just had a conversation about eating and cooking artichokes and I saw this pattern!  Ravelry is just so great for discovering patterns.  I’m doing 2 at a time on 2 separate needles and it’s going really quickly.  It’s an easy pattern to stick in your head, very intuitive, you can pick it up anytime and immediately know where you’re at.  My favorite kind of pattern.  I’m using the Shibui Sock I purchased last year, so yay, I’m using my stash!

I’ve been really quiet, focusing on my family and on myself.  I’ve been going to yoga classes 2-3 times a week, but of course….not this week.  This week I was overwhelmed by work and kids and schedules.  My husband has been overscheduled so that gives me no freedom in my schedule.  Hopefully this will pass.  I was really finding it helpful and noticing a change in my head and my body.  My daughter has gotten a summer job and thinks a chauffeur comes with it!  Ha.  My Little One is still having her sleep issues, too much to do to be sleeping I guess, I have to help her to wind down at night and relax.  Maybe we should get back to those knitting lessons!

Actually, we’ve started piano lessons and that’s been fun.  I got a beginner’s book for her and she’s really understanding it.  We have a pretty decent keyboard, we used to have a piano, but it was too big, and became a place to pile things on!

Sorry if I’ve ignored anyone, I’ll be back, just trying to prioritize these days!

I went back to knitting on Komet, the pink sock made from the Posh Yarn I got last (Feb. 2007) February, and really put my head into finishing sock # 2.  After about 3 inches I noticed on the lace pattern that the rows were numbered 1..3..5..7, not 1..2..3..4.  Oh.  I remember now.  I’m supposed to be doing a row of k9p2 on the even rows….I made this same mistake when I knit the first one.  A good argument for knitting the 2 socks withing the same month!  The sock is moving along again, looking much better as well.  It was looking a bit wonky, and not really like the first though I couldn’t put my finger on it.

But was I following directions?  Truly, the directions don’t specify this, but the pattern was originally published in German, and maybe somethings are just “understood”.  One of the women in my knitting group told me about her first experience with chart reading.  She read from left to right on the first row and then from right to left on the second, and then left to right on the third.  How was she to know?  Yes, some books do explain, but if you just pick up a pattern, and say, hey, I’m an experienced knitter, I can do this….but isn’t that how we all learn?

Trial and error.  I didn’t make it to the Y last week to exercise while my Little One was dancing.  I did errands instead, not a total waste of time.  But I did join a local yoga/training gym and have an unlimited membership to allow myself to try out different classes.  I went to the Kundalini yoga class on Wed. morning and while I enjoyed it, I felt it wasn’t the total exercise I wanted.  Yet the next day I was very aware of the muscles used.  On Thursday and Saturday I went to a Level 1/2 yoga class and I am stiff.  This was definitely an easier class than I am used to going to and that’s good, because I am truly out of shape!  But I know in 2 or 3 weeks, it will feel different, that my strength will come back.  But while I’m a little sore, I’m feeling good about it.  I would do the Restorative class today, but we have a birthday lunch to go to.

So, yeah, I’m enjoying following directions in the exercise part of my life.  I wanted to take a walk on the beach yesterday, but ended up working around the house.  I’m slowly attacking the house, I missed knitting group on Thursday, the girls both needed rides and attention, and my husband is busy with work.  That’s ok, it’s his turn now.  He took the Little One out to a Girl Scout dance on Friday, she was thrilled to be out with him, I’m so glad he took the time to be with her.

I’m just in this frame of mind these days of being so tired of taking care of everyone and everything.  I swear, it never ends.  I just want to sit on the sand and stare at the water and soak in the sun and feel the wind and not worry and think about anything.  I think I do a good job of giving myself breaks so I don’t freak out, but it just feels overwhelming sometimes.  And my job is taking care of houses….so there’s even more to be watching out for.  Thankfully, the rental house is occupied and that’s one thing off my mind.  Now to empty the crap out of the current one!

Got to get ready for the birthday lunch…perhaps I can knit on my sock in the car?  Doing it right this time!

Wow, when I clicked on my dashboard at WordPress, I saw A While Ago.  I guess it’s been a while!  Sometimes I just need to clear my desk, my head, my life!  I’m still slogging along on my wrap, it looks so bumpy knitting it from the completed Juliet, which looked smooth and beautiful after it was blocked.  I’m sure after I block the wrap, the bumps will come out.  With the school vacation and my daughter’s trip to London & Paris with Grandma, things around here have been upside down.  I’ve been juggling the houses, my job, my girls, typical crap.

We went into NYC to get the Big One, she arrived home on Thursday night.  We took the girls to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday, the Little One wanted to see the mummies, and ended up being entranced by Degas’ ballerinas.  We all laughed when we saw the modern art, but spent a huge amount of time in there looking at the pictures.  We ended up buying a membership and my husband and I are looking forward to going there alone!  I’m going to make an effort to just schedule a day for myself….to just hop on the bus and spend a day with myself.

Brenda of Cast On (oh, I haven’t listened yet this week…they’re so few and far between that I tend to wait to listen) had said a while back that when you want something, when you want to live a certain way, that you should start as you mean to go on.

But what do I want?  Other than my house emptied out and clean?  And isn’t that within my grasp?  I make little progress though.  I fill bags with garbage and clothes to give away, but it doesn’t seem to make a dent!  The Little One is doing well with her room and putting her clothes away and getting dressed by herself so yes, there is progress.

I want to take care of my work.  I did ALL of my billing for the housewatching and some big checks came in.  Progress.  I’ve been taking care of the houses, I’ve found that if I skip one then I’m wondering and lying in bed worrying and if I had just taken care of it I wouldn’t be worrying so that’s what I’m doing.  And by doing the extra work and visiting the houses more often, I feel more relaxed at home so that’s good!  And by billing and receiving pay for my work, I feel good.

It looks like the rental house is rented as of last night.  We took less than we wanted, but feel that this tenant is worth it.  We’ve covered the mortgage and he’s got a good deal and hopefully it will be a long term rental.  It’s not worth selling at this point in the economy!

I want to, I need to, exercise more.  Or at all!  Whether that means going to the Y and getting on some machines, or taking a yoga class, or just walking on my own.  I almost went to the Y one day and ended up in my car listening to a book and knitting.  In my exercise clothes.  The hour that the Little One is dancing at the Y is the perfect time, but I don’t feel like exercising at 3:30 in the afternoon!  Wah, don’t I sound whiny!  But it’s dance day today, so let’s see if I make it in there today!

I’ve been enjoying watching John Adams on tv, my mom doesn’t get HBO and had asked me to record it for her, so I’ve ended up watching each part a couple of times.  I put on The Tudors the other night because she said that the Big One might enjoy it after her trip to London.  Yeah, maybe not.  A little mature perhaps?  But the show was interesting to me.

So, knitting.  Another pair of socks has a whole in it.  I’m running out of socks.  I need to fix some or make some more.  I hope to make it to knitting groups this week, I need the inspiration!

I just got back from doing the school drop off thing. I love that time together in the morning, the rush is over and we’re having a fun time heading to school. On my way back I was listening to the radio and heard the daily Engines of Our Ingenuity and thought how appropriate for yarn lovers it was today! It was called Distaffs and Home Economics and you can listen to it or read it if you’d like, but here is his closing remark:

And the message of suffrage is clear. The path to freedom leads from distaffs to slide rules and drawing boards. It ultimately leads to supercomputers and spectrometers, to a place where, if we weave or embroider, we can do so for pleasure beyond mere survival.

And isn’t that what we choose to do? Because, why knit? Why spin? Why cook? Well, of course we cook to eat, but we could get away with easy plain meals, but we don’t always! I made dinner for my family last night, I can cook so many things, but it’s always, what should I make? I don’t schedule a menu for the week, I know the organization gurus say to do this, but instead I found myself in the supermarket only to pick up milk and saw the corned beef display. Oh, it’s March and when else do you get corned beef and cabbage? I picked one up and set it to cooking in the afternoon. I looked up some recipes - really, you just put it in the pot and cover it with water and simmer for 4 hours, putting the potatoes and cabbage in at the end, I put carrots in from the beginning. I put 3/4 of the head of cabbage in and saved the rest for another cabbage dish I had seen where you chop the cabbage coarsely and put it in a frying pan with 2 teaspoons of water and some butter and then cover and steam it. Then serve with some more butter. It was bright green and fresh tasting and delicious. The cabbage with the meat was sweet and tender and the meal was wonderful. I am always afraid that something like that will be too salty but it was ok. My husband stared at the platter, saying he had a problem, that he was full but it was so good he wanted to just keep on eating! Funny, because I asked him earlier if he liked corned beef and cabbage and he said, it’s ok. Even the Big One liked it. The Little One ate a little bit after some prompting. Can’t please them all. I had picked up some Guiness for a treat for us to have with dinner, and that was lovely as well.

Not a lot of leftovers so I guess I’m faced with the “what’s for dinner” scenario again!

I finished Juliet and I’m not happy…

Oh, it’s just lovely, but not as a sweater, as a wrap or shawl or scarf…

But it’s just wrong as a sweater. The yarn is supposed to be bulky and that would help to hold up the weight of the lace. Now it just pulls it down and out of shape! The yarn is a silk and merino mix and feels scrumptious, but better as a wrap, so I’m afraid I’ll be ripping it out. Or maybe just knitting from the finished object! Why rip?

Sad. I would like to try it again with the right kind of yarn. I picked up my Komet socks again…I got these from the German Yahoo group that was an adventure to join!

It’s one of those patterns that you need to keep track of, so I need to get the second one done! I have one other sock that’s in need of a mate, so I’m in a cleaning up mood. I did all of my billing on Sunday, so gone is the guilt I felt whenever I would knit and feel like I should be doing something else! I cleaned my kitchen on Saturday morning and folding laundry and cleaned the Little One’s room with her. And then rewarded myself with time to knit. Too bad it was on Juliet! But it’s not a waste. I learned something from that and I should immediately cast on for a wrap. Maybe use the same lace pattern? It only took me just over a week so I think I should just get to it! Maybe after I work, I still have that to do today!

Have you seen this sweater? I started to knit it with the Misti Alpaca Builky Handpaint, and while it looked great, I thought:

1- Wow, that’ll be some expensive sweater!

2- Won’t alpaca be a bit warm for the spring and summer?

So that’s what was on my mind as I ripped the Misti Alpaca out. I cast it on for the Ruffles and Ribs Scarf I had seen in the stores, only to decide it was too narrow. I ordered more yarn online and cast it on again wider. No. Too wide. I reknit the entire scarf in two days the narrow version, which happens to be perfect. It’s warm and soft and makes quite the statement!

I only wish I had a picture of me wearing it. Oh well. And the yarn I ordered will have to become a matching hat! Or maybe I should mix it with a solid and make matching mittens and a hat? It bothers me that I don’t have matching sets. Guess I should do something about it!

I like that I actually bought the yarn with a project in mind and knit it up all complete. Here’s the other yarn I bought with a pattern in mind…

I think it’s actually called the Child’s Rainbow Scarf, but come on, it’s simply a 2 x 2 striped scarf! I wish I had picked another color of the Migration, with more oranges and greens…but hey, now I have a brown scarf. It’s actually about twice this length already. Real mindless knitting!

Back to Juliet

I’ve cast it on using the Great Adirondack Yarn Co. Sirino, a 50/50 mix of Silk and Merino.  The sweater has cap sleeves and I’m going for the longer version.  After I knit a few more inches, I’ll start the lace pattern.  I’ve tried it on and I’m glad I went for the 3rd size up because of the thinner yarn.  I think it will be great over a tank top….but damn it seems to take forever to go an inch!  There’s a lot to be said for the speed of bulky weight!   My daughter called this colorway Rainbow Fish, but it’s really Nantucket Blue.

After our fun yarn crawl last week, there was an attack in a food store across the street from Downtown Yarns.  That was a bit scary, did I take my kid and myself into a bad neighborhood?  No, it turns out, it was an ex boyfriend who attacked and killed a woman.  Jerk is a bit too mild.

I’m feeling a bit up in the air about my projects.  I want to lay out my yarns and knit what I have (now that I’ve filled it up with new purchases!).  Guess I’m just feeling dissatisfied.

I was going to start the Printed Silk Cardigan from Interweave, but did Juliet instead.  On Lime & Violet, they said not complimentary things about the current issue, but I like it.  There’s a couple of things that caught my eye, but they were saying that the whole issue was just one sweater.  That they were all the same.   Right now that’s the sweater I’m liking though.  I like it more fitted across my chest and looser below.  And that’s what is in the stores right now.  I don’t expect to love every issue, but it is my favorite knitting magazine now.  OK, on to dinner and … knitting.

I’ve just returned home from NYC, where I’ve been for the last 4 days. I took the girls in to the city to visit Grandma last Thursday. The only activity we had planned in advance was a visit to the American Girl Place on Thursday for the show and dinner. We’ve been to the store in the past but never the show or a meal. Big thrill factor, even for the big one. We got in with a minimum of drama (got to the bus stop and discovered we had forgotten our suitcase and had to drive to Southampton to catch up with the bus!). I enjoyed knitting on my Trekking sock on the bus while they played their Gameboy DS’s and I listened to The Bridge of Sighs. We dropped our things off at my mom’s and headed over to Fifth Ave. Even traveling on the bus was exciting! If you’ve got little girls, it’s definitely a destination. The Little One and I spent some time on the bus trip in reading our Kirsten book - she was totally intrigued by it, a book we’ve had in the house for over 5 years.

We made it back to my mom’s apartment by 7:30 and relaxed there all night and planned our next day in the city. We decided to split up. Originally I wanted to do a downtown yarn crawl all by myself. The Big One (who I have not been getting along with) expressed an interest in coming with me and I agreed. It ended up being snowy in the morning and we started out the day with a trip to a shoe store for new snow boots (on sale) - always fun! We then got on the bus on 2nd Ave. and took that down to 14th Street to visit Knit NYC. They serve drinks there and have tables set up to hang out. We had something hot to drink and my daughter cast on a cabled Noro bag that she saw there. I have to give her credit because she’s never cabled before and she wasn’t afraid at all. In fact when we went to bed we talked about how in the morning she’d be up to the cables and when I got up I found that she’d already done them. It was easy, she said, the directions told me how to do it. She told me that they were her favorite rows, the cable ones, and she’s loving the Noro and the color changes. It must be genetic!

We liked the people there, there was a nice vibe, although there was some talk between the workers that perhaps we shouldn’t have been privy to. Something going on there….

Anyway, I did buy some extravagant yarn…it was Peru from the Great Adirondack Yarn Co. It’s soft and sooooo pretty.

Then it was a walk from 2nd and 14th down to Avenue A between 4th and 3rd Streets to Downtown Yarns. There was a customer working on some Bird in Hand mittens and we had a nice talk and the owner was so sweet. She had a sweater displayed made from Frog Tree Brushed Suri

It’s a light and airy V-neck made with less than 4 skeins….I can’t wait to cast it on! She also gave me a pattern to make a scarf using one skein of Mericash Solid from Punta del Este Yarns. So soft!

I also succumbed to 2 more skeins of Koigu KPPM….

Bad girl.

After that we headed down to Houston Street. I didn’t realize at the time that we could’ve taken a bus west, but we did take a subway over to West 4th Street. We made our way to Bedford Street to The Point, another cafe. My daughter picked out a piece of apple crumb pie while I shopped…actually we both picked out some decadent Misti Alpaca Handpaint Chunky. We had seen this back at Knit NYC, but here we fell victim to it! One skein each for scarves, another project we’re both eager to start!

I also grabbed 2 skeins of SWTC Bamboo…after chatting with some men and checking out one guy’s lovely shawl made with Bamboo. The stuff goes on forever and drapes like crazy.

One more stop after The Point and that was Purl Soho. This was a smaller space just packed with yarns. Our packages were getting in our way by then! I did almost fall victim to some Pear Tree yarn, but held back. My daughter picked out some Koigu for herself (I’ve created a monster!) and I bought 2 skeins of Alchemy Migration for a striped scarf. I did buy a lot of yarn, but I also have projects in mind to make from the yarn. Not just stash enhancement!

This Migration is a Silk/Wool mix, and will be my first scarf with silk in it. Special stuff. We headed home in a misty rain, happy in our warm snow boots, very necessary in the slushy mess of NYC! We were pleased with our ability to use the buses and subway and navigate our way around NYC without acting too much like tourists! The money we saved taking public transportation and not driving and parking in NYC was money we spent on yarn! Ha!

It was a special day, we got along and had a great time. She was outside of her comfort zone and felt close to me. She’s had a hard time putting her knitting down each night…just one more row mom….and is almost done with her first skein. We came home and met up with the Little One who spent the day playing Scrabble and Spit and Go Fish with her grandmother as well as taking a trip to the roof of the building to enjoy the snow fall! We had a great dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant and then we all crashed.

Saturday we switched. My older girl went downtown with Grandma to Chinatown for pocketbook shopping and lunch at a Dim Sum restaurant (sorry I don’t know which one!) and the Little One and I did the day at the American Museum of Natural History.   The highlight of our day was the butterfly exhibit…my daughter turned to me in amazement when we walked in because she thought the butterfly exhibit was a movie, not real life!  I’ll never forget her face!  I only wish one of them had landed on her.

On the bus over I saw a woman with a great scarf on and started up a conversation with her about it.  I said, isn’t that the Waves Scarf from Knit Picks?  Turns out she was on her way to work at Knitty City, just a couple of blocks away from the museum!  We did stick our heads into the store afterwards but it was already 5 and I was tired and yarned out from the day before!  Can you believe it?

Another dinner out, not so great, and then we all hung out and played games and knit and my mom & I watched The Namesake, which we had both read.  I found it different from the book, not as good, but I did enjoy watching it.   We had a relaxing morning today and took an afternoon bus home.  More knitting and book listening for me, much better than driving!  But now I’m home and happy to be with my husband and cats and home.  Happy to be here at home.  My daughters and I had a mini vacation close to home, but it felt far away and really special.  When we knit with our new yarns we’ll remember this weekend!

I was cooking dinner last night and had this thought that I should photograph my meal, it looked so good, and write about it. I just thought about it, I didn’t do it, although I have in the past, but what about people who do this in restaurants? I love reading about their experiences and they have pictures of the food, but I can’t imagine pulling out my camera and taking that picture! When I was doing the Wheel of the Year, I had to take a picture each month of the same thing (how would that work with some of my UFO’s? The picture would just be the same every month!) and one of my pictures was a display window in town that is so much fun. But I felt silly standing on the street taking a picture of the window. If I were a stranger in town, I would’ve felt more comfortable.

That being said, (hey doesn’t that sound like I listen to NPR? Really, they say that all the time.) it’s almost my birthday, and what do I want? I think I still want a camera. Also, I’m upset when I turn on the tv and there’s one of those shows….Clean House, Mission Organization….and the rooms look like mine. Well, sort of. And then Oprah did one too. Good thing we’re not overweight as well. I hear the people and I understand all of the reasons why we hold on to stuff. And I feel it’s helpful to know it’s not all me, that my husband has his own issues. I mean that 1964 Olds in the basement is not mine, is it? Or the truck outside that he replaced in 2004. I know, it’s got stuff in it. That’s what I want for my birthday, the truck out of here. Yes.

So there has been sock knitting! When I first discovered sock knitting a few years ago…I know my Little One was in dance the first time so maybe it was when she was 3? So that would make it 2004. I didn’t know what to knit with. The LYS (since closed) was not helpful. Why would you want to knit socks? And a face. No yarn. I went online and purchased an assortment, some of which I haven’t knit up yet. Now I don’t do resolutions, in fact I’ve made a resolution not to do resolutions, but I have an idea that I’d like to limit my new purchases and knit what I have.

I had bought 2 skeins of Trekking XXL, and the first was knit up into a 2 x 2 rib at 60 stitches on size 2’s (which I thought were toothpicks and I couldn’t imagine at that time using 1’s or 0’s! ) and it was too large. But I learned how to make a heel flap and hobbled my way through the seaming up of the toe. And they were way too big. Over the years my husband has agreed that not all wool is scratchy, and they’ve become his socks. And when we’re sitting on the couch and his feet are cold and damp from being in his boots all day in cotton socks….he takes them off and puts on the Trekking socks and it’s like magic. They’re not too heavy, actually they’re airy and light, and they keep him warm. Now he wears them all day. And now he’s been trying on other too large pairs of my socks to see if they work as well. I have to start knitting him a sock wardrobe!

So here’s color 36 with almost one sock done. I repeated the 2 x 2 rib at 60 stitches, it’s a stretchy sock, but this time continued the pattern on the foot, which I didn’t last time. This was a sock I tried to carry with me, no pattern to remember just K2 P2, mindless and easy to pick up and put down. I had to stop when I got to the hell and think about it for a bit. I felt such pride when I simply had to concentrate and not pick up a book or a pattern to refer to for the heel, my how far I’ve come! What seemed hard and fiddly and overwhelming a few years ago is so easy now!

I can remember feeling that about yoga and some of the poses and moves. Even staying in plank for more that a second or two! And then after a few weeks, it’s like nothing. I’ve stopped exercising for far too long, feeling like I didn’t have the time, but now I see I don’t need the class or the tape. I don’t need the pattern. I just pull out the mat and do a few sun salutations to warm up and stretch. And then I do a few more. And then a few twists and poses, and then I repeat on the other side. I take about 20 minutes and then do a few more stretches and get on with my day, and I’ve already felt a difference in my body. It feels good to feel my muscles ache a bit, and stretch out. I like to be aware of them!

So back to dinner last night! I don’t only read knitting magazines. No. I read spinning magazines too. Just kidding. I also get cooking magazines and I had seen a picture on the table of contents page of Bon Appetit of a Potato, Greens and Goat Cheese Quesadilla. They used mustard greens and put them in a food processor with salsa, and used chili powder on the potatoes, but I didn’t pull out the magazine and read about it until today because I couldn’t find it last night!

I remembered seeing the picture and yesterday was share day at the farm so I need to use up some potatoes! We get lots of sweet potatoes, both large and fingerling, and also some tiny white and yellow fleshed potatoes. I used the yellow one’s for dinner. I washed the potates and boiled about 8 of them for 15 minutes. I cooled them and sliced them up and then sauted them in butter and some fresh dill (from the farm!) I put that aside and sauted 3 shallots (from the farm) in olive oil and added mushrooms (not from the farm) and garlic (ftf) I tossed in a plum tomato I’d cut up and then added the greens I had picked earlier in the day. I had picked lots of lettuce but I kept a bag separate that I felt was good for cooking greens. I think it was Japanese mustard and the other green looked like a frisee, I don’t know, it tasted good. I wilted the greens a little bit and then took it off the heat.

I laid out a flour tortilla on the skillet and put some of the potato and veggie mixtures on half of it. I put some goat cheese throughout and also some shredded mozzarella because I thought my husband wouldn’t like all goat. I also put some fresh, uncooked greens on top of the mixture to wilt that way. Holy shit. It was so good. Did I miss the meat? I guess having the mushrooms fulfilled the meatiness I needed…but I must admit to thinking, hmmm, how would this taste with some little bits of sausage mixed in? Or skip the tortilla and just cook up the greens and veggies and serve over the potatoes and then sprinkle the cheeses over that. I think I’ll be cutting more of this mustard next time at the greenhouse!

It’s a bit of a pain to do the greens. I can go once a week to get my greens and once every 2 weeks for the root veggies. I bring a few bags and my scissors, because I want to separate some of the greens. I like to keep the arugula separate sometimes and the cooking greens separate. When I bring the greens home I soak them in a large bowl and them take them out carefully and change the water a few times to get the dirt out. I use the salad spinner and lay out the greens on clean cloths to dry before putting away. I’ve learned what a week’s worth of greens is for us and it’s a lot. This has really justified in my mind joining the CSA. It was $250 for the winter, and will be about $700 for the summer share. So that turns out to be about $20 per week for a family share. It seems expensive when you sign up but I know that at the supermarket this winter I’ve been looking at what I buy in the produce aisle. Broccoli and mushrooms and an occasional cucumber for the girls and that’s about it.  (And some fruit of course!) Instead of the bags of spinach and lettuce we used to get every single week, I’m at it with my scissors in the green house! I’d love to buy the bags of large onions and I miss the red onions, but I’ve made do with shallots all winter. And lots of garlic. Carrots have become a major veggie in our house and beets. Every chance I get I sneak in a parsnip or turnip! In the beginning of the share we were getting butternut squash and pumpkins. Wish we were still getting those! But the sweet potatoes are so delicious. I had frozen lots of cauliflower and green beans so while they aren’t crisp and fresh, they’re great for tossing into soups and stews.

I’m looking forward to the spring and having my Little One learn about the farm and plants. She’s become a lettuce eater and eagerly digs into a bowl of mixed lettuce. Not the Big One….can’t you buy me some Iceberg? Isn’t any of this lettuce crispy? Yes it is, but it’s not what she’s looking for. Oh well.

OK, off to do some work. The girls have plans for hanging with friends for the weekend, so I’m going to try to make some progress in my house purging! And maybe some knitting!

Gah, I just read over this post, I seem to be all over the place!  Now how to focus all of this energy?  On cleaning I mean!

I seem to have fallen of the face of the earth! I am here, I am knitting, but priorities are shifting all over the place. I am working on the Tilted Duster. I am working on my Trekking sock, but I’m on the heel now and not just doing the ribbing so I must put on my glasses and figure out where I am now, no more mindless knitting while I wait.

And I’ve cast on for the Simple Knitted Bodice again. Yes, the first one is still on the needles, but I wasn’t happy with the yarn I had chosen. It was a Berocco, and it was thin and silky feeling but caught on my hands if they were a little rough. I’ve ripped the Blue Sky Melange out of yet another started project and I think this time it’s a match!

I’ve never been one to start the year with resolutions, but since getting into the habit of writing each day, of letting my non-stop inner voice out in print, I feel that a purge is in order.  I seem to talk and write about cleaning and purging more than I do it!  I like how Brenda of Cast On said it in her latest podcast, start as you mean to go on.  So if I’m dissatisfied with what I’m knitting, get rid of it and find what makes me happy.  If I feel flabby and unfit, exercise.  If I feel disorganized and messy, clean it up.  It’s not a matter of money - but it is of time.  So perhaps I won’t knit as much, but leave it as a reward.  I pick an area and clean it, fill a garbage bag, put the laundry away, and I get to sit and knit a row or two.

I set my mind to filling the pantry, checking out sales and coupons and doing the homemaker thing.  Making a list, only buying what was on the list and filling the pantry and freezer.  Next we will sit down and make lists of what we like for dinner and try to plan a week at a time.   There has been progress and I’ve noticed a difference in our daily lives.  When I take the Little One’s dance things out of the dryer they go directly into her dance bag so on Tuesday morning I’m not running around looking for them!  Things like that.

And overwhelming tasks like the billing and cleaning out my closet?  I’m trying to do small things.  One customer a day.  A bag or box at a time.  It doesn’t fit?  I don’t like it?  Out.  I have a box of optimistic pants that I hope to fit into again, I swear that’s what I wrote on it!

And I’ve had the urge to quilt again, but I’m fighting it off.  I don’t want to take anything out until I clean up.  A large reward for cleaning I guess!  I’m late today for work, having taken the time to prepare dinner in the crock pot (white chicken chili, yum) and exercise using Yogo Journal’s new podcast.  A quick 20 minute routine that mixes things up for me.  I’m recording a show on volcanoes for my nephew from the TIVO onto DVD - it was scheduled to be deleted today, I’m glad I remembered it!  So I’m multi-tasking as usual and looking forward to going to work and only doing one thing!  Ha.