Life's a Stitch

Supposedly 85% of those drawn to careers in social services have landed there due to their own "issues."  I’m sure my workplaces are not that different than those in the real world, but I’ve had different co-workers who ignore all the rules and sleep with clients; embezzle; leave a spouse as directed by God in a dream, to find Fred, a high school sweetheart; and one who designed a sketchy website on work time and we ain’t talking knitting here. It involved leather and dirty underwear.

Here’s the recent scenario: employee is best friends with former employee. Former employee runs off with employee’s husband after a long affair. You can imagine the water cooler chat over this one. How about the divided loyalties, those who were closer to former employee than current one? Think about current employee, confiding in former employee about her marital woes, and former employee making it all better with employee’s husband. Evil. And what about the kids? That’s my office as a soap opera and I’m sure the plot will get even thicker with time.

Cue the leaves on the Japanese maple, it’s Canadian Thanksgiving weekend!  We’ll be celebrating with Marsha, my knitting buddy from Seattle, and her husband; our three language students (two German one Mexican); Mari and five of her dorm buddies camping out on the family room floor; and boyfriend, Mitch, in with Bryant. This is how I like my holidays; lots of people and food. Have a good one.

Along with eighteen pairs of Addi’s, we brought back fifteen kilos of chocolate when we came back from Germany. Chuck thought for sure customs officials wouldn’t believe with an inventory like that we weren’t going to set up a chocolate and knitting shop. Throw in a wine bar and I might get interested. Anyway would you believe I haven’t had one bite of that chocolate. I broke into my Addi’s immediately but haven’t tried the chocolate. I do however, have a preference for something else German. Saltze Herring – these are little black licorice fish covered in salt and sugar. Fat free and loaded with flavour. Call me strange.

Here in the Pac NW, the rains have started, the heat has kicked on in the house and it’s time for some serious knitting. Here is the beginning of the leftover shawl. The colours are prettier in real life:

You know how a good recipe can be even better the second time around? Take a look at this platter, knitters. Doesn’t it get the saliva runnung? How can I keep a mix like that stuffed in a plastic drawer? So, here’s the plan: a old shole-ish, feather and fan-ny, Ab-fab type stole knit lengthwise. I’ve swatched and have decided on US size 10 needles. But first I must finish something else on my plate.

This is the cause:

This is the effect after pushing the innards of a 25 lb fish down the garbage disposal:

Now for the math lesson: 25lbs of salmon = $10 of Drano + $26 pizza dinner on paper plates + $160(!) Roto Rooter bill. Aggravation level = priceless.

Moving on to English class, today’s lesson is literature: Do you know the story of Henry’s Awful Mistake? Condensed version: Henry the duck invites ducky cousin Clara for dinner. While he prepares the food he spots an ant in the kitchen. While trying to kill the ant he puts a hole in the wall, breaks the pipes, floods the house etc… We sometimes call Chuck, Henry.

I know, I know, put on your big girl panties and deal with it. Can I knit instead and ignore the whole darn mess?

My new favourite expression is "Put on your big girl panties and deal with it." I need to do just that and get on with finishing the two sweaters that are almost finished except for the finishing. You know what I mean, the sewing, the buttonholes, the buttons…

I once knit a sweater, one of my first ones, which sat in my closet for over 20 years, sewn together, patiently awaiting its button holes. One day I discovered that I had actually completed this step and only the buttons weren’t sewn on. By then it was three kids and 20 lbs later. Here it is, barely worn by Elina in her first year in the dorm five years ago, still buttonless:

Chuck says do it now, while you can, before it becomes, "Put on your Depends and forget about it." I think I need to order this book.

Have you ever had a once in a lifetime experience? I guess when they happen you don’t know it’s a once in a lifetime. Maybe it’s the first in your lifetime. Last weekend, on the ferry between Vancouver Island and Vancouver I lost count after seeing 21 Orca whales. There were many more, but it was difficult to count them all. I didn’t want to waste time going back to the car to get my camera, so it’s one of those photos etched in my brain, hopefully forever. I doubt I’ll ever see that many whales in the wild at one time. It was breathtaking. Right up there with the flock of wild parrots I once saw in Mexico.

Earlier in the day I saw a woman walking five Scotties, the third time I’ve ever seen so many Scottie bodies in one place. The first time was when I was five years old, accompanying my cousin on a hunt for a puppy. We visited as Scottie breeder and right then I decided that someday I would have one, and now we’re on our second. They bought a poodle and named it Tiffany Plato Bonaparte Socrates Ramp.

My Marina is my once in a lifetime Alice Starmore knit, as I can’t justify budgetwise buying one of her kits. I was fortunate to find a pattern and a good source of yarn. The other unrationalizeable project is an Ab Fab throw, but I’m in the process of figuring something out that will satisfy that urge. More on that another day. For now, the back of my Devan baby sweater:

Gracee looks truly repentant, doesn’t she? Either that or sick to her stomach (see my last post). She came through it fine, a little chocolate breath and a brown beard, but no worse for the wear. Maybe it was a case of sympathetic nervous eating for me – yesterday was our annual general meeting at work and my fear of public speaking caused me to indulge in some good nervous eating: a half bag of Miss Vickie’s potato chips, a piece of Starbuck’s green apple cake and a cinnamon bun.

I knit few rows on Marina on Monday at knit night, but not enough to take a photo. I have completed two too little baby sleeves, though. The body measures 13 inches, neckline to bottom, and the sleeves are 7.5 inches long. They just seem a bit short. Maybe my kids had long arms, but I’m tempted to add a bit on. 

Before:

After:

Gracee’s in the dog house:

Was it good, Grace? At least it wasn’t knitting.

I just found out that I’m going to have lots of knitting time in December. This has been the year of major appliance repair and/or replacement in our house and now it’s my turn. I’ve decided to go ahead with an ACL graft and a few other nips and tucks inside my knee after having problems so severe that I can’t turn over at night without dislocating my right knee. Sounds icky and painful but I’m concentrating on the positive aspects, besides the obvious one of having my upper and lower leg finally connected together enough time to catch up on my knitting. I’m making my list:

1. Major work on Marina.

2. Watching a couple of seasons of "Six Feet Under."

3. Reading a few Canadian books sitting on my shelf – Unless by Carol Shields, All That Matters by Wayson Choy, and the Island of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston.

4. Updating our will.

5. Completing last year’s taxes.

6. Another attempt at sock knitting. On the way home from the surgeon’s office I bought this:

Being Ms. Practicality in most parts of my life, my daughters can’t understand when I don’t get excited about their dating anniversaries. "We’re going out, it’s our two month anniversary," they might say. I suppose in this age of brief marriages you’d better celebrate anniversaries while you can.

Chuck and I hardly celebrate our wedding anniversary. Once his sister called from Minnesota, and after 45 minutes on the phone, she wished us Happy Anniversary. It came as a shock to both of us, neither of us had remembered. We didn’t forget after that, but we still don’t do much as it’s so close to Christmas. We did it big twice, buying a stereo for our 10th and taking the family to Mexico for our 20th. Maybe there’s a relationship between big fancy weddings and feeling compelled to celebrate in a large way. We ran off on a Monday afternoon to get married.

Today I thought I’d check out when my first blogging anniversary will be and to my surprise it already was! It was September 3rd last year that I started this habit. Might have to increase my stash in celebration 🙂  Back then I thought, "How will I ever come up with enough stuff to regularly blog?" My family assures me I’m never at a loss for words.

Instead of a knitting picture I’m posting my latest sunset photo taken from our deck. My dream is to win the lottery so I can have a water view someday, but you can’t beat these sunsets for now. Have a good weekend.