Waiting..., Hands, Knits.

So I applied to go to school. And now I'm waiting. And waiting. Annnnnd waiting. For an answer as to whether or not the school has accepted my application, whether I will get financial aid. whether I will get the loan I need to pay for school. I really want to know what is going on. I've checked the loan website over and over again! But it's nothing new every time. Bummer.

I've only told my sister and Melissa so far. (Well, obviously my husband knows!) I don't think I'm even going to tell my mother. I'm sure she will only have negative things to say about it. I'll tell her after I graduate. Then see what she has to say.

Oh why oh why can't they just hurry up and tell me yes or no?!?!?! The waiting is driving me nuts.

My hands are in terrible shape. I'm going to see the Ortho doc in a couple weeks. Surgery is what we're looking at. For whatever reason, I showed zero improvement with therapy. Even not knitting and wearing those stupid braces at night didn't help. And can you imagine how hard it was/is to NOT KNIT??? So I'm supposed to be still wearing the stupid braces even thought they drive me crazy and rip my hair out and scratch me. I'm trying. I hate them, though. And they seem to do no good. I still wake up with pain and numbness. So frustrating.

Knitting has been difficult. I've got a one-year-old, ok? He keeps me busy, that's for sure. Not that the other three every let me have a break, either. Of course, I don't mind too much. They're cute enough that I still like them. ;-) But I have some of this and some of that done. A dishcloth here, a hat there. Or shall we say, parts of things here, parts of things there. I like to start new things so much, I have a zillion UFO's all over the place. I have finished Molly's hat. I'm sure it won't go over very well, considering none of her family knit and do not realize the amount of time and effort even something as small as a hat takes when you're making it by hand, but I really don't care. It is really cute, though.

And I have not been keeping up on Ravelry. I pop over to read a bit now and then (I even posted a few days ago!) but as for the amount of time I was spending there before? Not so much. After all the crap with Mom going into the nursing home... I just don't have the patience for it. And the worst part of that? I know that's somewhere I really could go and talk to someone about it. But I feel like I might be misunderstood. To tell the truth, I'm afraid that my Rav friends will think I'm a terrible daughter and a worse person. And I don't want that at all.

I did, however, make up a hat pattern for a friend of the husband as repayment for a favor she did for him. I made notes and wrote out the pattern. Was knitting another of the same to test out the pattern while playing D&D at the in-laws and MIL requested a copy of the pattern for her friend who wants to knit hats for her granddaughters for Giftmas. Hopefully I wrote it well enough that she gets a nice finished product out of it.

KooAid!

I dyed yarn with KoolAid for the first time recently! It was simple and fun. Yippeeee!!!!!

This one was Grape and Pink Lemonade. I will be doing more soon.:-) I went and bought more of the ivory sock yarn. Plans include a Berry Blue and Lemon-Lime combo, a Black Cherry run, and possibly an Orange skein.

I got a new camera the other day. It's a Sony Cyber-Shot. Comparatively cheap, but very nice for what I need a camera for. AND IT'S PINK! Soooooooooo cute. This is what it looks like:

Found out on Monday that I'm going to need surgery on my hands. Fuck you, carpal tunnel. I know it's an easy, common procedure but that doesn't make me any less unhappy about it. Doc says we might have to try physical therapy first but that the surgery is inevitable. Crummy.

Knitting has again been sporadic. I've been trying to make a Chain Chomp hat for Bam. I've actually got the hat itself done, I just need to get the teeth, chain and eyes on it. Laziness in action. I've also got a hat to make for Annie. I had that one about 25% done and had to frog it because I screwed up some stitches and couldn't figure out where. Duh. I dunno, that's all I can think of right now. I'm pretty sure that I've done more but have knitting emptiness of the brain at the moment.

My brain is filled with thoughts of the Magic Yarn Ball Swap! This is the coolest thing. I'm so glad I waited to join a swap until this one! First, it's in the Pants. That is the coolest part of it. But the concept of the Magic Yarn Ball is the next best part. You take whatever yarn you're giving your swapee and begin wrapping it around some sort of middle/core -thing-, some sort of goodie that you've chosen. Then you continue to add in little bits of awesomeness as you wrap the ball up. Linky to one example: http://whipup.net/2006/04/25/kids-yarn-project-the-magic-wool-ball/. I can't wait until April 1st! (That's our open date!)

Enough for now, off to make dinnah & think about swappy goodness and what flavor to dye my next skein of sock yarn!

Book Store?

So aside from the ridiculously deep desire I have to own a yarn shop, I also have the desire to open a second-hand book shop. I think the book store would be more successful at this point. I'm not even sure why I have that feeling, it's just there. Not that even a second-hand bookstore would be successful in this economy. But I still want to do it.

Have been spending more time knitting lately. Finished several things. Not loads, but still working my way through. Certainly less than I'd like to!

Got a couple more rows done on the black blanket.

This thing may never be done!

And made a Mu-Sock for Sadie. Cute and fast. I'm sure she'll like it. (It's for holding an mP3 player, if you didn't get that right away.)

A hat just cuz I felt getting a hat out there.

This is the hat mentioned in my last post. (Incidentally, I joined the group the day I finished the hat.)

And here's a cute little heart.

I want to make a hat with hearts on it so I searched for a heart pattern and found this one. It's awesome, but not quite the right shape. I was hoping to find a longer heart but alas, no. I may mod this one a bit and get it to work.

A couple of Kittehs. The right one is MINE. I made her out of Noro Kureyon. Um, yeah, that is the most horrid yarn I've ever touched. Hate on me if you like, Kureyon Lovers, but YUCK YUCK YUCK! I do agree that the colors are AMAZING BEAUTIFUL GORGEOUS FANTASTIC, but:

a.) Sticks in my yarn. I wasn't even outside, thanks.

b.) Thick-thin to the point of being unknittable, all in the same yard. No. Uncool.

c.) Hard hard hard on my hands. And I'm no baby.

d.) Breakage. Randomly. Without a tug or pull. Just knitting along and snap! WTF? The left Kitteh has been given to J-Bug. He love love loves her. It's adorable watching him play with his kitty. I "made it" meow at him and he just cracked up. Too funny.

And here is the Giant Fucking Q of Doom.

My first colorwork project. It was a Secret Santa type thing gift for Hux's work. The recipient loved it apparently. Which still makes me cheeeeeese. It's really not gold, the camera I have is just junk. The stripes and "Q" are plain old bright red and a nice green that's named "Grass Green" but not at all what I'd call grassy-looking. ??? Again, WTF? Oh, well.

Working on some more stuff that I don't have any pics of yet: Hux's Diamond's, a Chain Chomp Hat.

I haven't played D&D in so long either. Makes me sad. I want a new group of people to game with. People somewhere around our age. Decent people around our age. I've got kids, ya know?

And now the smallest rugrat has awakened. No more typing for Mommy!

3! Restart! Hats!

Cakers is three now! Yikes. I can hardly believe it right now. The time has passed so quickly. It makes me realize that time passes faster than you really think it does. Hubz & I have been married for almost five(!) years, I have a teenager (EEK!), we've lived in this apartment for 2 years now. So many more things that have just flown on by, too many to list.

I've failed miserably at the 101 in 1001 challenge/goal. I'm going to start over again. AGAIN. There are so many things on that list that I want to accomplish. Now that I've got a printer I can have a hard copy of my goals sitting in front of me and do some other things I wanted to do to help keep myself on track. I plan to print individual goals and the steps I will take to get there, print out little reminders to myself of things I can do to work towards completing goals. All things I'm too lazy or busy to write out by hand.

I've joined a(nother) new group on Ravelry. This one is the 52 Hat Challenge. The idea is to make 52 hats in 52 weeks. The end of the goal is technically the last day of 2009. Since I joined later that Jan 1, I've got a little bit of catch-up to do. But I've already got one hat done. One thing I really like about this particular challenge group is that it doesn't specify where the hats have to go. I haven't got the money to ship a hat somewhere, much less 52 of them. It's just "challenge yourself to get it done and don't worry where they've got to go". You can donate them, gift them, or keep them! Very cool. Especially since I've got several hats I want to make for certain people in my life. However, I don't think I've got 52 people that I want to give a hat to, so I'll certainly keep one or two myself but I think I'll have a few to donate. I'm not sure where to donate them just yet. I mean, Dr. Green's office/the Oncology Department would appreciate them, I'm sure, but so would the children's hospital. Since they've both helped us, for different members of our family, I'd think I'll give some to each. But then again, there's ECHO and House of Mercy (one of the area's homeless shelters) and the YWCA battered women's shelter and all the elementary schools around here like to have extra hats for kids who lose their own. So many worthy causes to choose from. And they all need them. How does one decide?

My mother has started dialysis. Her kidneys finally gave out. No, let me rephrase that, she finally killed them. They got sick of her abuse. I love my mother, don't get me wrong, but she doesn't care for herself. She says she wants to live to see all her grandkids graduate and go to college but her actions contradict that. And she blames everyone for it except herself. She's completely in denial about her diabetes (she was diagnosed in like 1990 and still acts like she's not sick!), she refuses to follow doctor's orders, no matter how many times they tell her that if she doesn't do this or that she's going to die. She completely refuses to accept responsibility for her actions and behaviors. Plus she lies her ass off on a regular basis. To her family, to her doctors, to her friends. Most everyone knows her games now, though, but not everyone. The woman my mom calls her best friend didn't even know she had full blown diabetes until just a couple of weeks ago. They've known each other since 1998 and my mother always hid it from her and downplayed the full scope of it. It's totally ridiculous. And I know I sound totally callous and compassionless but if you've lived her game, that's how you end up when it comes to her.

Trying to get up and running...

I'm having a hard time starting my 101 in 1001. I don't even have the list complete. Ugh. Frustrating. I want my goals to be "worthy" of the list. I sometimes even feel that some I already have on the list are cutting it close as it is.


I suppose I'll have to use generic "space-holders" for a while. Didn't really want to. Doing that makes me feel like I'm starting a project without all the necessary equipment to complete it.


Also, I wanted to organize my list a little better, into single time goals, monthly, weekly, daily, etc. categories before I posted it here. I guess that will come later.


But anyhow, da-da-da-da...



My 101 in 1001
Start: Sunday, August 10, 2008 Complete: Sunday, May 8, 2011

1. Document my progress with this list in my blog at least once weekly.
2. Write a list of 100 things that make me happy. (0/100)
3. Blog at least 3 times a week.
4. Complete at least one knitting project a month. (1/33)
5. Apply to at least three jobs per week until I get employment.
6. Make at least two scrapbook pages a month. (0/66)
7. Call Christi once a week.
8. Take a vacation to Las Vegas.
9. Visit my sister and her family in PA.
10. Visit Door County.
11. Take a cooking class WITH G.
12. Get another tattoo.
13. Start savings accounts for: Bam, Lula, Cakers, J-Bug, G/Me.
14. Have a garage sale.
15. Donate what doesn't sell in the garage sale to a women's shelter.
16. Pay off my student loan.
17. Eat at a sit down restaurant all by myself, without reading, talking on the phone, etc.
18. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.
19. Drink at least four 8oz glasses of water every day.
20. Donate 95,000 more grains of rice on freerice.com (for a total of 100,000). (16,500/95,000)
21. Learn at least one new word a week.
22. Walk with Bam on his paper route at least twice a week.
23. Make a house cleaning schedule and follow it.
24. Write a knitting pattern and submit it to a magazine.
25. Plant a tree for each of my children.
26. Have 500 "no-spend" days. (7/500)
27. Motivate someone to do their own 101 things in 1001 days.
28. Create a new list of 101 things to do in next 1001 days.
29. Take pictures in a photo booth at the mall.
30. Do 200 hours volunteering. (0/200)
31. Try 100 new recipes. (2/100)
32. Write and mail at least one 'thinking of you' card each month. (0/33)
33. Put everyone’s birthdays/anniversaries in a calendar and actually start sending cards.
34. Make a family cookbook for both sides of the family.
35. Get my wedding dress cleaned/boxed.
36. Buy new pillows for all beds. (At least as many as there are now.)
37. Make a photography book with at least 100 photos.
38. Upload 1000 more photos to flickr. (10/1000)
39. Get new glasses.
40. Do 5 brutal cleanouts of unnecessary clutter. (0/5)
41. Spend a weekend making 20 meals to freeze.
42. Eat 5 servings of veggies every day for a month.
43. Keep a food diary for 3 months.
44. Follow the Couch-to-5K Running Plan.
45. Take a road trip that involves at least one overnight stop.
46. Go 48 hours without the internet.
47. Dine at three new (to me) local restaurants. (0/3)
48. Sell something on etsy.com.
49. Sell items at a local craft show.
50. Donate $1 to charity for every item not completed.
51. Get certified in CPR/First Aid.
52. Teach someone to knit.
53. Make a sweater for myself.
54. Take a self-portrait once monthly. (0/33)
55. Make first pair of socks.
56. Start my own business.
57. Get rid of storage sheds.
58. Scan all of our print photos and archive them.
59. Write a children's book.
60. Have Lasik surgery.
61. Write 3 letters of thanks for good service. (0/3)
62. Write 3 letters of complaint for bad service. (0/3)
63. Make 5 new female friends.
64. Make friends with 4 new couples.
65. Get contact lenses.
66. Hold a Christmas in July dinner/party.
67. Go to a casino.
68. Ask for 3 songs from five different friends, make a CD, and send a copy to each of them.
69. Make sure my kids are all up-to-date on immunizations and check-ups.
70. Go on a date with G at least every other month.
71. Go on a family outing at least every other month.
72. Buy a vehicle big enough for our six-member family.
73. Have a salad dinner once a week.
74. Have tacos or taco salad once a month. (1/33)
75. Give at least 10 handmade gifts this Christmas.
76. Finish the black circular blanket (!)
77. Label all our DVDs and game discs with our name.
78. Check out the ( ) Area Knitters Guild and decide if I want to join.
79. Make 15 charity projects.
80. Make and follow a one week meal plan at least one week a month. (0/33)
81. Remember to take my pills every day.
82. TBD
83. TBD
84. TBD
85. TBD
86. TBD
87. TBD
88. TBD
89. TBD
90. TBD
91. TBD
92. TBD
93. TBD
94. TBD
95. TBD
96. TBD
97. TBD
98. TBD
99. TBD
100. TBD
101. TBD



So that's my list for Day Zero. Good luck to me and to everyone else out there making an effort to change their lives.



I have several FOs I haven't gotten on here. I've been slacking with this whole "new baby" thing going on. Although it is hard to knit with a squirming baby in your arms... I can do it, I just do it a lot slower than normally.



This one is a terrible picture but the hat is fantastic. I started out making a hat for J-Bug to match his blue sweater I made and it turned out too big. Plus it looked rather feminine. So I gave it to Cakers. On her, it looked like a cloche. Lovely but it kept slipping off. She's too wiggly for that type of hat. So I grabbed the yarn and some smaller needles and added a little over an inch of ribbing. It fits perfectly now and she loves it. All's well that ends well!

And here we have J-Bug's Gooseberry. It's just a bit big, which is what I wanted since it's August and too warm for hats, obviously.

I've got some matching solid blue yarn that I plan to make him some socks from. It will be my first attempt at socks. Eek! I can't help but be nervous. Socks look sooooo hard. I realize they are nothing but knit and purl stitches, just in a special order but that order is... really special. Thank goodness for Ravelry! I know I can go there and get advice if I need it.

So soon?!

Ha ha! Yes. I am posting again, already! I've got J-Bug balanced on my lap and he's only wiggling a little bit. :-) Poor kid's got the hiccups again.


J-Bug laughed for the first time this morning! It was sooooooooo adorable. I was holding him, letting him look up at the ceiling fan (one of his favorite activities). All of a sudden, he just started cracking up. Completely out of the blue. I wasn't even trying to get him to smile. Something about that fan was hilarious to him, though.



My sister brought me her nursing footstool when they came out for their visit. I love this thing! It's great here at the computer. The couch is too low, though. If I use it there, my knees are nearly up to my chin. Not the best position for feeding a baby.


He's getting so big so fast, too. Last Wednesday he was already up to 12lbs, 13oz! He really doesn't eat all the time but you can't tell from how quickly he's gaining!



I've gotten several projects done lately. My Ravelry notebook is probably the best place to check them out by I'll put at least a little bit about at least some of them here.



Lil Sweater for J-Bug: A sweet, fast knit baby cardigan.




























J-Bug's Hat: This one I made to bring him home from the hospital in. (Modeled on Lula's lovely

baby doll.)




























Ginger's Green Thick-Thin Scarf: I finally got this thing finished!
















Bam's Dice Bag: He chose a stitch pattern from one of my books and I whipped it into a bag.
He ended up choosing, of all things, Feather and Fan. I was sort of hoping for a bit more of a challenge, but I told him to pick whatever one he wanted.
















Cakers's Requested Hat: Cakers asked for a hat, here it is.

















And so the end of my post... J-Bug's getting ticked.

A bit of time

So while the baby is sleeping I've got a bit of time. I've been wanting to do an "About Me List" type post for a while. I couldn't decide how many to do so I asked my hubby for a number between 7 & 20. He chose 8. Here goes...

Eight (or so) Bits of Info About Me:

1. I'm addicted to knitting. I love the hows, the whys, the whats, everything about knitting. I consider myself to still be a newbie knitter. I love collecting yarn, needles, patterns, and any knitting goodies I can get my hands on.

2. I hate looking at myself in any mirror. If I can avoid it, I won't let my picture be taken.

3. I like to get drunk but I'm terribly afraid that I will end up being an alcoholic like my father. Alcoholism runs in my family on both sides, paternal and maternal. In my soul, I feel the potential for that addiction. It's very frightening because I know what it can do to a family.

4. Pepsi is my favorite non-alcoholic drink. Bacardi Light (rum) with Pepsi is my favorite alcoholic drink. Pizza is my favorite food. I think Papa Murphy's Take-N-Bake is the best pizza ever.

5. Purple is my favorite color but I also love pink, white, and black. Strangely enough, most of my yarn is other colors. Blues, greens, reds top the list. I wonder why. ???

6. I don't ever want to be without internet service again. I love my internet, even though I don't get on much anymore and blog even less, I hate the thought of being unable to access it. Ravelry is like crack to me. Yes, that's shallow. But it's true.

7. I want to own a house. A ranch-style with a laundry room on the same floor as the bedrooms, a pool table in the basement, and a kitchen with a big island in the middle of it. I wouldn't mind having a pool in the backyard, either. And a hot tub.

8. I'd rather donate to a charity or organization that helps people in the US.

So that's my Eight Things list. The baby is still sleeping. It was quicker than I expected it to be. I suppose that means it was easier to do than I thought. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Todays...

I was really hoping that I'd be able to add to this blog every day. And yet, my last entry was over a week ago. It hurt just to think about opening it up and seeing the entry about Edward's. And now I'm back, teary-eyed from seeing that post again. And, of course, I couldn't *not* reread it.

But my days have not been too bad lately. I've been working on a few new dishcloths. I've discovered that I love making them. Talk about (nearly) instant gratification! If I get a couple of hours, even as a few minutes here, a few minutes there, I can have one done. And not just plain garter stitch! I love a stitch pattern called "Knotted Shell". It's sooooooo pretty. And it makes great nubbies for scrubbing with! I've made a skull & crossbones cloth recently. I should post these on my Ravelry but... I need to get some pictures taken and loaded up into this machine. It is just a pain in the butt to try to find that damn USB cable! And every time I try to photo the dishcloths, the picture looks terrible! Any suggestions?

And I'd like to really start writing. Again. There's a brilliant book in there somewhere, I just know it. Or at least a brilliant short story (collection?).

Ugh. There's too much going on here. I can't think.