TGIF - Halloween Edition

• tricks
• treats
• putting pen to paper
• trains that actually show up when/where they are supposed to.
• sleep
• tea
• costumes
• friends
• understanding
• phone calls
• B's great news & being there to share the joy with her
• celebrations planned for tomight
• the power and confidence and control I've gained in the last 12+ moths of class

BOO!

It's like a ghost blog this week....

I'm writing - but nothing I can blog.

I'm knitting - but nothing I can blog.

my kids have the pre-Halloween crazies and I'm going crazy. I'm going to need the night out on Friday...

stay tuned for some spooky TGIF tomorrow.

Can't come to the blog right now...

well.. I suppose I can .. I just did... my mind has just been on unblogable things.. well again, I could blog them, but people actually read this - quite a few actually. This topic is way to personal and deep for me to begin to discuss in such a broad forum. It (with the help of Kathy) has inspired me to write a collection of fictionalized essays/short stories, which I may at some point share. Possibly in this forum, but maybe not. How is that for vague? See.. I'm still sorting this all out in my head and it's pretty full in there right now between the topic I ponder, new changes at work (more regulations=more work) and getting ready for Halloween (it's big here!). Not to mention that I am still cold, damp and bitchy about my clusterfuck of a commute this morning. "on or close to schedule" my ASS!

as for my knitting/crocheting:

• 2 gifts in the works- can't blog those yet...
• socks are black/grey and it is WAY too dark to take a progress pick and have it actually look like anything.
• the wedding shawl looks EXACTLY like it did last time I showed you.
• I did finish this: a felted drawstring bag.

TGIF 10/24/08

• my exquisite birthday gift
• friends to share it with
• the killa dress!
• pheromones
• understanding
• non-judgemental friendship
• rules
• inspiration
• making plans
• Bender
• the pink book
• epiphany

C'ELLE NO! - revisited

almost a year ago, I posted an entry about C'ELLE. I am continuously amazed when I see just how much traffic a GOOGLE search for C'ELLE drives to my blog. amazing. I do have to say that I've been doing business with CryoCell for almost 6 years. We have Ryan's cord blood banked there, and we are very happy.

Before I go any further, read that entry (and chuckle to yourself that Deb is now pregnant).

I have to say that after using the Diva for a year, the concept really doesn't weird me out so much... but still... my budget has other priorities.

Yesterday, Denise Z. left the following comment:

Why aren't THEY PAYING WOMEN for this?!?!? I think it's a great idea - the menstrual blood truly is "holy" (for lack of a better word). Women are the only ones who have it. WHY are WOMEN PAYING MEN for this?!?!?!?!Women, we should be demanding that they pay us for this. I have studied this since 1997 - back then, my friend actually talked about creating a cup to store the blood.I would love to hear your thoughts on my comment. I honestly cannot believe that women have to pay $200!! (supposedly a deal) for this....Thank you,Denise (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

My first thought was YES! They should pay us for this, but in this case, they are providing storage for it and you are paying for the service. Makes sense since I can not cryogenicly store my blood products safely in my deep freezer (which did work well for breast milk!).

Denise does make a good point about it being "holy". For centuries (perhaps longer), menstrual blood was regarded as a sign of fertility, growth and renewal. Think about it. It comes from the same place that new life emerges (the P-word!). Even then - before male doctors got involved in "women's business" - they understood the connection and the cycle of fertility. And remember that your cycle stops if your body is not healthy enough to support a pregnancy, so having your period was a sign that you were in fact healthy and fertile.

Now, our society has evolved into a patriarchal one. One that has made this "holy" symbol into something shameful and sinful. I remember my Grandmother telling me that she thought she was dying when she got her first period. Even I was too embarrassed to tell my mother at first.

Don't get me wrong.. I'm not saying that it is all fun. The bloating, irritability and the sensation that my uterus is being yanked out through the base of my spine... not my idea of a party! But it is a time to relax and pamper yourself a bit. Don't be embarrassed. Seize the opportunity to curl up with a heating pad, chocolate, a glass of wine and a good book... or perhaps some Noro Silk Garden...

Now, shall I explain why I believe that we should refer to God the Mother - not God the Father? Perhaps another day. Right now, Pussiliah and I have to get back to work.

Women's Intuition

ladies - you have it... use it! it is that "Spidey Sense" that tells you that something is up. some one is lying, the kids are up to something, you're in danger. Hell, it's how I knew I was pregnant before it was even soon enough to take test (I'm not.. so don't even go there...). A couple of weeks ago, Crazy Aunt Purl ignored hers... (go read that post.. I'll wait.)

Scary, huh? if she had listened to herself, she could have avoided it. She is VERY lucky that she didn't get hurt/raped/mugged/killed or whatever their plans were.

What would you do if someone tried to assault you? would you panic? would you run? would you fight back?

A little over a year ago, the MMA school that my husband and 2/3 of my kids attend (in case you are wondering, Colin is still too little) offered a Women's Self Defense Workshop. I thought it was a good idea to go, so I did. There were sign ups for a weekly class at the workshop. Todd signed me up. If you know us, you know that he rarely even attempts to tell me what to do. He does offer suggestions, but he knows that I'll do what I want. But, this was about safety and he felt very strongly... and I was inclined to agree. I was slightly apprehensive about the class. I'm not a fighter and I wasn't interested in being a martial artist, but, I worked in downtown New haven and I wanted to feel safe walking to my car in the garage every day.

The class has been amazing. I am more confident and relaxed. I can do things I thought I'd never do. I can literally throw my husband over me and body slam him (hip toss)! I can throw a punch - several strikes actually. I don't hit like a "girl". I hit like a fighter. Women aren't built for the kind of power that men are, so we need to know the body mechanics behind a strike for it to have any hope of holding off an attacker. The best part? it is FUN! I save up my aggression from the week and beat up the bags, "Bob" or the instructor (man he's a good sport!). I fell strong, fierce and invincible! A far cry from the shrinking violet I used to be. I have done things in the last year that I wouldn't have even considered before.

Since the class formed, two of us have had to use the skills we've learned in the real world. Fortunately, in both cases, no one was hurt. More importantly, in both cases, we were both calm and in control during the altercation. No panic or fear - just reacting as we were trained.

Yes, I said we... I had to use my training just a couple of weeks ago. To make a very long story short. we had an intruder (an 18-yo neighbor actually) enter our home and try to hide from someone he thought was going to shoot him in our children's bedroom. Todd got him out of their room and it was clear that he was tweaking out on something (rumor has it that it was Ecstasy). He grabbed a kitchen tool that could have been used as a weapon. I had to disarm him while Todd called 911. We finally got him out and he ran off up the road to find a new hiding spot. don't know if the cops found him, but we said we wouldn't press charges as long as he stayed off of our property - inordinately.

The boys thankfully slept through the entire ordeal. Though in retrospect, maybe we should have woken them up to see exactly WHY they should not use drugs.

If you have the opportunity fo rsuch a class - TAKE IT. If you know someone that can teach you how to throw a punch - LEARN. We have an intuition, a built in alarm system - LISTEN. Be safe.

Birthday with the Family

We had pizza and cake with the family on Friday night. nothign too exciting, but a nice way to celebrate none the less...

Saturday, we went to a hockey game then out to a bar with some friends. I decided I needed a new dress (yes.. to wear to a hockey game). BEST idea I've had in a long time! DAMN I looked good!

TGIF - 10/17

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

• Birthday Plans!!!


• Friends to celebrate with


• Friends who won't be able to make it (bitches!)


• Noro (must get more!!!)


• baby Pumas!


• packages from WI!


• roses from Ryan


• having a "spare"


• tea parties


• a hubby who remembers


• the gift of life and another day to live it.


• staying in control in a scary situation.


• my training which gave me the ability to reamin in control.


• my instructor for that training.


• the chocolate the I hear is headed this way.

Addiction

There really needs to be some sort of 12-step program for Noro... this scarf practically FLEW off of the needles! In addition to the color gradation, they yarn varies in thickness from as fine as a lace weight to an aran weight with the occasional slub. very interesting texture. I was disappointed in the amount of vegetation still in the finished product. At that price, I expect none. I had no knots in any of my 4 skeins, which was great. I've heard some scary stories about knotted Noro and colorways not matching.

the pattern is addictive too... one more square... I'll just finish this tier.... yeah... that was pretty much all I did during the long weekend (well, I did bake 2 batches of cookies & 2 pies, clean the bathroom, wash 4 loads of laundry, buy groceries, help teach a self-defense workshop and apprehend an intruder in a real- life application of my self defense skills).

I bound off the last tier Monday night with only about a yard left over! talk about calling it close!

Tuesday night, it got a soak in some tepid water and wool wash, then a gentle blocking. I laid it out on the guest bed and pinned the ends only. I wanted it to be blocked neatly, but I also didn't want to abuse the silk (45%) too much. By last night it was nice and dry.

..and even more spectacular! I'm almost hoping the real cold gets here soon... almost!

Tea Time!

For those of you who don't know me IRL, I am a tea snob. there. I said it. I am and I'm not ashamed of it! we do own a coffee maker, but I don't think we have filters for it. I'm not even sure what filters to get... usually, I buy a Box O Joe at DnD and use the coffee maker to keep it warm when we entertain. Coffee snobs (like my brother and MIL) know better and bring their own.

We all drink tea here. I do. Todd does. So do most of our friends. When Kim and Kathy lived near by, we regularly had tea together. In fact, Kim and Jay came over for tea and Cinnamon rolls every Sunday after Church. With all of the tea around them, it seems natural that my boys are tea drinkers. We added one more to the ranks on Sunday!



I know what you are thinking.. CAFFEINE! well, yeah.. but in spite of the rumors you may have heard, it is a LOT less than coffee or soda. Besides, Andy & Ryan have ADD/ADHD and caffeine actually helps a little.

More importantly, we use our "tea parties" to help teach the boys some manners. They have fun (and cookies) and they learn not only what good manners are, but WHY they are important. And yes... they are important. Our society may have become quite informal, but I think things like respect and manners are becoming far too scarce and need to be taught to a lot of adults as well as my kids.

I can't change the world, but I can teach my kids to say please and thank you, to address adults formally and to respect themselves, others and the world in general. I can raise gentleman and, with any luck, good husbands and fathers (preferably in that order).

TGIF 10/10

• getting my sew-jo back
• rest
• talent
• Noro
• entrlac
• putting recipies on my blog
• my chiro
• deadlines
• pumpkin cookies
• tea
• friends old & new
• season tix to the Sound Tigers!
• three day weekends!!! (expect a finished - or nearly finished Noro scarf next week!)

I've lost my sewing Mojo (or is it Sew-jo?).

Probably happened the night I broke every last needle trying to serge a bunch of inserts together before camp. yeah... pretty sure that was it. Sewing microfiber is a BITCH!

As I mentioned in my ode to Noro yesterday, I can NOT cope with UFOs and stash hanging out. My entire fabric stash right now is leftovers, a few hand-me-downs and a bag of feed sack scraps that I picked up at the alpaca farm last week.



How can a quilter (which I am) pass up such a treasure?

Anyway.. with the prospect of Halloween costumes looming, my UFO list was reaching unbearable proportions.:

• kitchen/entry curtains
• mending
• 2 diapers ( between these and the pants, he is sure to PL fast, right? RIGHT?)
• "Blueprint" quilt
• "Amber" charm quilt
• Fall Exchange post cards

Colin decided to cooperate and take a nice looong nap and I got a lot done:

• Decided I hated the pattern I had for the curtains and left the fabric in the bag.
• mending was nearly eliminated once I explained to Todd that there was no point in mending shorts/pants that no longer fit him.
• diapers are done, but slightly bloody. I managed to sew THROUGH my finger tip while threading the needle. Don't worry - It's only a flesh wound!
• "Blueprint" quilt top is done. I need to decide on, then purchase batting. the quilting will be a LOT of work. much of it is integral to the design.
• "Amber" is still in pieces in the bag. I still need around 600 more fabrics (not exaggerating!) after being impaled, I had no desire to fuss with curved piecing.
• Cut out the peltex and started my Post Cards. I'll blog them after they've been mailed - no spoilers!

Incentive

What better incentive to finish a project than this


Noro Silk Garden

waiting in the wings - taunting me! I know.. most of you are thinking that you would have just cast on the Noro as soon as it came.. or just tossed it in the stash.

I can't do that. I can't handle too many WIPs. They call to me. taunt me. "KNIT ME! KNIT ME! You know you want to! Make me your scarf. It's getting cold out there, isn't it? c'mon, just cast me on, then you can finish those pants..." (That isn't limited to knitting either, more on my sewing issues later). I can't cope with a stash either. It calls my name too. Actually, my yarn stash is limited to leftovers/scraps, 4 skeins of alpaca that mom gifted to me and 3 more skeins of sock yarn from our trip to WEBS. That is it. (No - REALLY!)

I tend to have 2 projects in progress at any given time. One for home and one to travel. However, I have my Anniversary shawl OTN and that requires concentration and focus that I don't always have at the end of the day, so I've got another "no brainer" going as well.



Oddly enough, both of my "home" projects are entrelac. The Noro is cast on and quickly becoming a Kaleidoscope Scarf. I love watching how the colors evlove as I knit them. What is fascinating is that the color change is from the spinning process - not a dye of a blank yarn. it really produces a much more subtle movement in the yarn. fascinating this stuff! The fact that it is silk and mohair is just icing!

Toddler Pants

I cast these on at camp. They started out going failrly quickly. BUT the way the short rows are distributed, it started to feel never-ending. FINALLY I got to the gusset (pattern is wrong - you need to increase on BOTH sides of the markers), seperated the legs and sewed the crotch. The legs went on and on and on. really... the kid isn't that tall... but the (seemingly) endless stockinette did nothing to hold my attention. It was only the arrival of my Noro Silk garden for my next project (already cast on, but the subject of a future post) that pushed me to finish them. That and it's getting cold here... BRR! the final insult was sewing all of those damned ends! next time (HA!) I'll sew as I go.



I like the construction and the fit. If I decide to make them again, I think I may change the waist to a casing for an elastic, but that is just a matter of preferance. It really wasn't the pattern, but the size that bored me. That is a LOT of stockinette for one kid....



Pattern: Booty Extreme Knit Pants
Yarn: Cascade 220 (green) & Patons Merino (brown)
Size: 2T/3T

I tried getting him to pose for a picture wearing them, but he was busy with his research in perpetual motion. (but they DO fit!)



Now that they are done, you know what that means, right? Yeah.. I'll bet he'll start actualluy GOING on the potty while he is stting there... too bad.. he's wearing these pants anyway!

ps- see Cynthia. you arn't the only one knitting/blogging pants!

Toasters

I watched a bit of the VP debate before I decided that it was all a bunch of fraking BS and put in BSG 3.0.

Laura Roslin sat down in her chair on Colonial 1 and put on her glasses. FRAK! no wonder Gov. Palin looks so familiar!


I had seen the comparison of Sen. McCain to Col. Tigh before, but now that I think about it, having a Cylon in office may not be so bad. Think about it. We can send out the Toasters and bring our troops home. Afterall, we can just build new toasters... Then, when they find bin Laden (and you know they will!) we can just toss him out the air lock. Hmm... no... even Dr. Baltar got a trial...

One thing I do know.. Apallo is HOT!



and on that note...

Sick of the Scum

The Pond Scum socks are D-O-N-E! finally! It was starting to feel like I've been knitting these for.E.V.E.R. I did manage to use up almost all of the yarn though.. That is always nice. I hate waste.

Details:

• Pattern- Seaweed Socks by Wendy Johnson
• Yarn- ONline Linie 3 Supersocke 100 lost the ball band with the colorway... but I bought it at WEBS.
• Ravelry project link
• Notes- I like the heel - I'll probably use that again. The lace was OK, but I'm clearly sick of it. It does bias a bit

Up next:

I promised the next pair of socks to Todd. He Picked out some "MANgenta" sock yarn at WEBS,

BUT he was flipping through the latest WEBS catalog (he'll read anything in the bathroom!) and saw a picture of CookieA's "Monkey" socks and a black/grey sock yarn. So I ordered the yarn. It came in as I was Casting off the Pond Scum, So I started the Heavy Metal Monkey Socks this morning.


Toe-up - as usual. I'm also going to omit the picot at the cuff. It isn't very manly...