Life's a Stitch

I got to fly home first class. Of course it took a note from the ER dr saying I needed to keep my leg extended and elevated. Here is my souvenir from Banff:

That would be a $120 worth of full leg hinged brace, not from skiing, which would be the logical reason for visiting the ER in Banff, but as the result of a close encounter with an icy sidewalk outside the front door of the hotel. Lovely. I did enjoy the complimentary glass of cab-merlot on the plane. I’ll let you know more after I meet with the surgeon this week.

This will give me plenty of time to complete Charlotte, currently at 100 rows:

Another guest blogger entry – this time from my sister-in-law. I figure if Bryant is the Son of a Stitch then Ellen is the Stitcher-In Law:

This week I’ve been feeling a little sorry for myself.  After a “balmy” 56-degree day on Sunday, my corner of Minnesota has settled into a week of freezing drizzle, wind, snow, and cold temperatures.  Add to that all my traveling friends: Peg is leaving for a Caribbean cruise on Saturday, Faye is in Cozumel, Beth just returned from Cancun, (and of course there’s Li going to tropical Alberta), and I’m here.

This afternoon, however, I found a little respite, a little bit of sunshine, close by in Rochester.   My husband came home from work on Tuesday, saying he’d found a yarn shop across from St. Mary’s Hospital and that maybe I’d like it.  Being spoiled by the shops I frequented while visiting in Vancouver, I critically thought to myself, “Right.  A yarn shop in Rochester.”  Today I was delighted to put my cynicism aside and enjoy the warmth of the mother/daughter owners, helpers, knitters, a good cup of coffee, and shelves of quality yarn.   I also indulged myself by leaving with a rather large bag filled with fun yarn.  I think I’ve found a new motto for myself:  If you can’t join them, knit.

I’m super busy with the course I’m attending in Banff. It’s a wee bit colder here than in Vancouver!

At Chicks With Sticks last week I was teaching a beginner knitter. She gasped when she looked at my hand. What is it, I asked? she observed that I had a highly developed muscle between my thumb and forefinger and dubbed it my "knittoid muscle" obviously from daily knitting. We were rolling over laughing comparing our various knittoids. Mine was the largest. It is not nice looking but it is the best, most developed, muscle in my body. To view your knittoid hold your hands in front of your face, palms facing away from you. Press your fingers together and out will jump your knittoid. This is the measure of a serious knitter.

I’m still in migraine hangover phase but certainly not as bad as before. Sometimes I fear they are triggered by knitting. Don’t laugh, a neck spasm can cause terrific headaches, just like in whiplash. I have to be really careful how I sit when I’m knitting.

OK, now, how many of you checked your knittoid?

I have a guest blogger scheduled for Friday, see you next week.

Hi From Edmonton where I’ve been sick with the mother of all migraines for two days. I usually measure the severity of a headache by comparing it to one I had on a train travelling from Bremen to Amsterdam a couple of years back. It started early on in the trip but gained considerable strength after the train was delayed when someone in rural Holland decided to meet his end by diving under our coach. We arrived in Amsterdam in the middle of the night, but due to problems with the track we were let out at a downtown station instead of the airport. Lugging too much baggage we found our way to the airport, but it involved a disgusting ride in an elevator sloshing with pee and another train ride with a loud cursing Scottsman. It was 2:30 a.m. and we had missed the last shuttle to the airport hotel, a $20 cab ride away. When we finally made it there, seven hours ahead of our flight I was never so glad to see a bed, no matter the cost. I thought that was the worst headache of my life until now. An arsenal of drugs large enough to cause major organ damage hasn’t made a dent. My main task for the day will be getting to a medical clinic three blocks away and figuring out a way to feel better by the time my course starts tomorrow. This is not the way I intended to spend my birthday.

I’m so lucky to be in the company of my daughter who is T minus five weeks from her BscN. She made me chicken noodle soup just like I used to do for her. We had a really fun first day but I’ll write about that later. Hint: yarn shop and too much money.

Thanks for all you comments yesterday. That post exudes 14 year old ego and I’m sure he’s thrilled to hear from you. And your sweet comments about his mom were most appreciated.

Charlotte at about 80 rows:

Hello everybody, I am Bryant, son of Li. I enjoy doing many things such as unicycling, sleeping, eating, playing guitar and occasionally knitting. For me knitting is a procrastination system so I can avoid my homework. Someday I will start a infinite scarf so I’ll never have to do homework. My stash consists of one ball of camouflage yarn.

I can’t believe that people actually come to this site. Before my mom made this site I was placing bets with her. My side of the bet was that nobody would actually come and she would be stuck pressing the refresh button to make the hits go up so she would feel better. I was wrong but I still think she presses the refresh button ; ).

LATEST HEADLINES IN BRYANT’S LIFE

Velvet Revolver coming to town, Bryant has ticket!

Bryant bought new Ramones shirt, it kicks @$$.

Bryant might be an actor, for he just got an agent!

Bryant is too lazy to type.

That picture is me trying to look all cool… psst… if any of ya knitters have any nice single 14 year old daughters, please contact me immediately 🙂 .

So there ya have it. Me – The son of a stitch.

Working in a mall has its drawbacks. Your kids feel free to put items on hold letting the clerks know their Mom works in the mall and would be happy to stop by on her break armed with a charge card. They think nothing of interrupting your day with a request. "Mom, on your break can you pick me up a can of Axe body spray?" So I did. Axe body spray is sold in the deodorant section only it’s twice the price. This kid is going to smell me out of house and home. The thing is, Bry is (how do I put this without angering him or causing him teen angst)  young for his age and doesn’t even smell yet.

Charlotte update: my favourite project of all times, even more fun the second time.

Apologies if your button has suddenly disappeared from my sidebar. I’m trying to figure out the problem. It’s been very frustrating. I promise I’ll get you back soon.

Next week I am travelling to Alberta for training, but first spending the weekend and my birthday with daughter #1. I’m hoping to post my usual four times, but in case I can’t, I have a guest blogger or two lined up. Want to guess? One is the son of a stitch himself, Bryant. Have a great weekend.

I’ve decided that I can handle having four UFO’s at once. More than that is too much, but sometimes I cross the line. Yesterday I had the Autumn Silk cardigan, the cable scarf, and another incomplete scarf tucked away.

The cardigan would be more of a fun knit if the yarn weren’t so frustrating. I decided to substitute Estelle Mystik for the tussah silk. It splits easily and being rayon and cotton, has a lot of stretch and drape, making it difficult to measure. The threads come apart so easily they stick to the rough parts on my hands. I have to use plenty of hand cream when knitting this project. It doesn’t seem to be a problem once knitted, but all the unknitted ends are separating into strands of thread.

Lace knitting really appeals to me.  Last year’s Charlotte’s Web shawl got me hooked. It was a bit overambitious for a beginning lace knitter, but I wasn’t going to give up. So, look what’s jumped onto my 6mm needles. I’ve loved this colour Koigu and have slowly built my stash so I can do another Charlotte, this time all in one colourway. Now I have four projects on the go.

Back on Friday.

So my birthday is coming up; I’m an Ides of March baby. Maybe that explains some of my quirkiness. My husband and I came to an agreement a long time ago regarding gifting.  The rules are:

1. Gifts can’t plug into the wall unless the recipient has expressed a desire for the object. A replacement toaster oven is not a gift.

2. Gifts must be something the giftee wants, not something the giver wants. A wood lathe would fail on both counts – it plugs into the wall and the gifter wants it more than the giftee.

3. We don’t do anniversary gifts to each other, it’s too close to Christmas and we use it as an opportunity to do something together or buy something we both want and that, indeed, could be a replacement toaster oven. There was an exception to this; we agreed to buy nothing for our 20th anniversary, but Chuck gifted me with a wedding ring for himself. It meant a lot since he had lost his ring when we were married six months and wasn’t in a rush to replace it. He wrapped it in nine consecutively smaller sized boxes.

4. Be careful what you say. Pointing out the pewter reindeer in the Cold Water Creek catalogue doesn’t mean you want a family of them for Christmas.

That said, I was gifted with ballroom dance classes this Christmas. It was something I really wanted that didn’t plug into the wall. It was truly a gift because Chuck wasn’t thrilled about it, his gift was his participation. So, now comes the b-day and he hasn’t asked me what I might want. Not being shy about asking I popped the question, "How about a single night fox trot class?" His reply, "Who’s taking you?" So much for that. Jewelry works just fine for me. Or yarn.

Slogging away on the Autumn Silk Cardigan; some projects just seem to take longer than others. I’ve finished the two front panels, this is the back. I don’t knit in the same order from project to project:

Nadia, a UBC student and a knitting blogger, left a comment on my blog a while back when I posted about Koigu coming to Vancouver. Since she lacks transportation I offered to pick her up last Saturday at the seabus, take her to lunch and to West Vancouver’s Knit and Stitch for some Koigu. It was especially fun for me as my two girls are away at school and it nourished my mothering needs. My son couldn’t believe that I was meeting up with someone I met on line. "For all you know she could be a 65 year old dirty old man posing as a student," he advised me with his 14 year old wisdom, "What would you do if I did that?" I told him I’d go with him. He took that as an invitation and accompanied us. Turns out her friends told her the same thing. I assure you, it was very innocent, two devoted knitters out for a day on the town. Nadia did a good job of enhancing her stash as she had a good week selling on E-Bay. She bought Koigu for a pretty blue Charlotte and yarn for three other projects. Take a look on her blog, she took photos at the shop to post. It’s interesting meeting another knit blogger, despite the age difference you have so much in common.

Nadia gave me this, which she whipped up that morning, being an accomplished seamstress as well as a knitter. It’s a travel case for two pairs of circular needles with pockets for double pointeds, crochet hook or a cable needle. Thanks, Nadia. Poor girl got a taste of life in our family complete with 14 year old attitude and the dog puking in the car.

I saw two signs last weekend that have stuck with me. They were both nice professionally made signs. One said "Free Manure – call to make appointment." OK, I’ll put that on my list of tasks: finish writing will, deposit cheques at the bank (how come that’s not banque in Canadian?), book time for teeth cleaning and make appointment to buy manure. The second one really cracked my up. I was laughing out loud in the lady’s room at a Thai restaurant reading the engraved brass plaque on the back of the stall door: " Important notice: This toilet has a history of clogging. Please flush as many times as possible during your stay." It reminded me of when I was in eighth grade. On Saturdays my friends and I participated in a teen bowling league. Afterwards we’d go to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. The lunch special was $1.10 for wonton soup, chow mein, and canned pineapple for dessert. Two of us would split it, .55 each, with negotiations regarding who would get the soup and who would get dessert. The restaurant was called the August Moon. There were rumors that the health department had once closed them down for using cat meat instead of chicken. In that restroom someone had written something else in the stall door: "Flush twice, it’s a long way to the kitchen." Yumm.

I’m still knitting away on my cable scarf  and I’ve started again on my Autumn Silk Cardigan: