Tangled

This is certainly my week for bonehead moves. Tuesday night, before camera class, I felt the sudden urge to turn the yarn for my next pair of socks into a yarn cake. For no other reason than I was too lazy to get out my swift & ball winder, I decided to wind it by hand. Bad idea! I started out fine but soon became a tangled mess.

It was handspun yarn.

If it had been anything else there is a strong possibility that I would've tossed it in a corner as punishment for misbehaving and forgotten about it for a while. It's happened before and this was a pretty snarled mess.

I was really distressed about this so last night I came home and got to work. I sat and wound and untangled through Jeopardy, American Idol, Project Runway (yay for the finale), the late news, Letterman ( a re-run- damn!), and Craig Ferguson. By the time I went to bed it was 2 am but at least the yarn was untangled.

Any other night this would be inconvenient. Last night it was really distressing because today I have to go speak to a bunch of 6th graders for career day. I am really not a public speaker. I am the kind of person who's most comfortable sitting quietly in the back of the room observing everything. I don't know what posessed me to agree to this.

On my best days I can be expected to make a complete moron of myself when speaking to a group but when I'm running at a severe sleep deficit. OMG! What was I thinking? And this audience - I'm going to be telling a bunch of my daughter's peers about being a law librarian. Ugh! I'm sure they think this is as exciting as cleaning their room. I just hope I don't embarrass her. Please let me not trip over my own two feet in front of them.

Wake me when it's over.

Falling Off the Wagon

Last weekend I decided that I wanted to knit a little gift for someone - a few dishcloths. So I went to my stash and pulled out 2 balls of Sugar 'n Cream and went to work. Here is the result of my efforts so far.

This is yet another example of the ubiquitous Ballband Discloth. It's pretty and soft and I love it very much. Could there be a simpler pattern that gives such fun results?

I'm hoping that this will be one of a set of 3 so I went back to my stash to find more yarn for the coordinating dishcloths and this is what I found. Do you see the problem? It's a snoozefest. A whole lot of pink, purple, turquoise and white. Stinkerbelle chose these colors for her log cabin blanket (please don't ask about that - I'll finish it eventually) and I bought way too much. What I didn't buy was a lot of variegated "ombre" yarns to coordinate. I was in such a quandry because I've been really good so far about knitting from my stash. I really didn't want to break my streak but in the end I caved and went to AC Moore which would be forgivable if I got something helpful there. I didn't. I bought this instead - one ball of Sugar 'n Cream in Navy. What was I thinking? How does this help anything? Ugh!

On my Feet Again

Thank you so much for all of your good wishes! I hope to thank all of you personally but it will take a little while - I have a lot of catching up to do!

After posting the other day I retreated to the couch with my feet up and I was a totally uncharachteristically good patient. I kept my feet up and iced for 3 days. It was so hard because I am not a sedentary person. There was so much that needed to be done and that I wanted to do but I really just couldn't walk much at all and the painkillers just wiped me out. Instead I sat and watched my toes turn colors. Today they're a wicked shade of purple but I'm going to work anyway.

I learned that even with the painkillers ( I totally get why Dr. House loves his Vicodin so much) I can still knit. There was surprisingly little frogging involved either. I finished 3 projects over the weekend and I am now nearly finished with my holiday knitting. The last project, a pair of socks, made it's way onto my needles last night. Ahhh... cashmere!

The first of the finished objects that I can share is Sheldon. Yes, this is the project that I hinted at the other day. Here is a picture of our Frankie meeting the newly hatched Sheldon. I'm not sure that Frankie was impressed but I just love Sheldon.

I saw the pattern as soon as the holiday Knitty was posted and knew that I had to make Sheldon for my niece but I'm a little annoyed. I don't understand why they post the holiday Knitty so late. For those of us who celebrate Hanukkah there was barely enough time to complete anything in it for gift giving. For that reason I couldn't use the KP Shine that was specified. I love KP stuff but they are so slow! There was no way it would get here in time. Instead I found some Rowan Cotton Glace. It worked well too.

For the most part this was a great pattern except that I found it a little confusing towards the end. I was off the meds by then so I can't blame it on them. ( I just went back to get the link and noticed that the stuff that confused me while knitting has been updated with corrections - much better now.) After 2 tries I figured out what was wrong and I finished the project off. Sheldon is so cuddly. After a few hugs from my girls, he is on his way to my 3 year old niece in NYC right now with a few Franklin the Turtle books (Frankie insisted). My girls have already told me clearly that we need a Sheldon (or 2) for the house. They were bonding with this little guy and didn't want to let him go.

I followed the pattern pretty faithfully except for the materials. As I mentioned earlier I subbed a different yarn. I also subbed 12 mm saftety eyes instead of 9mm just because that's what I could find in the stores near me. I totally think it works though.

By the way, I never heard of the Subway Knitter but I don't think that's who caught me knitting my sock since I was in DC.

Isn't it Ironic

Yesterday afternoon I had an appointment at a very large and well known medical center. I was perfectly healthy when I arrived but, stepping off the shuttle bus I stumbled and fell and landed in a heap on the curb. Very graceful! We wound up spending the evening in the ER where they found that I had badly sprained my right foot. It's very swollen and the injury is serious enough that I can't walk on it at all AND, as if that wasn't enough, I broke a toe on my left foot. They gave me crutches but, because both feet are involved, I can barely use them. On the positive side, they gave me the really good drugs - Dr. House would approve and be jealous.

As if injuring myself on the grounds of a major medical facility wasn't enough, I did it the night before my last spinning class. That is certainly ironic. I can't walk at all much less tredle. I am so unspeakably pissed off.

I'm not sure if I can even knit much today. I suspect that knitting on Vicodin will result in much frogging. Ugh!

Up to the point that I fell, it was a pretty good day. Amusing even. I was riding on Metro and working on binding off another sock when I looked up and saw a woman who was also knitting a sock. I didn't pay much attention though because I was feeling the pressure of holiday knitting. We both wound up changing trains and again I found myself sitting accross from her. Suddenly there was a flash and I looked up to see her putting her camera away. I think I got caught KIP-ing! On film! How funny. I can only guess that she must be a blogger. What other explanation is there for a knitter takig a picture of another random knitter on a train? I'm really not that photogenic.

No pictures today because this is about as much as I can handle right now. I do have a finished sock - maybe I'll finish it's mate. Maybe I'll finish the mystery project too. Maybe I'll just take a nap.