Thoughts for the day and Crazy Aunt Purl

Crazy Aunt Purl has a great pattern for knitting arm warmers.   CrazyAuntPurl: My hands are officially warmed.  Hers are such great colors too.  I think I will make a pair.  Right after I finish my Harry Potter scarf and the socks that I started early in 2008.  I have also bought four skeins of 100% wool, northern sky Aran on sale at Herschners, really cheap, for socks.  But, I haven’t read if I can use it or not for socks. 

I just checked and found that I must never throw them in the washer as 100% wool will felt.  Yeah, like that will work.  I am now forced to buy a book at Herschner’s to make Aran & Celtic sweaters or maybe the Great American Aran Afghan book, with the yarn.  Like, I do not have enough afghan’s already.  I figure they will come in handy when I am homeless and cold.  Which  should be on my list of things I do not want to do.

 

Crazy Aunt Purl posted a picture of her cat in her kitchen.  CrazyAuntPurl: Which one of these things does not belong in a kitchen? Her kitchen is so brightly clean white, I want to shoot her, or stab her with a fork four hundred times.  I guess that is what you can have when you live alone, with your cats, and work all day.  I live with three men.  I have a burned wall in back of my stove and a sprayer that is no longer attached to the sink so that water runs into the open hole and into my cabinet at times.  And filthy toilets.  Why is it that men can’t get it in the hole?  Either thing!

 

Crazy Aunt Purl is writing a new book.  That is, IF there isn’t an earthquake.  Right now, she is praying for an earthquake.

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My endless “to do” list

I have not posted on either blog very seriously lately.  I did have a bugger of flu, and then there were trees to decorate and cookies to bake and gifts to buy, and excuses to make up.  Not to speak of the book I am working on. 

 

I think my personal editor is actually taking a break from her editing though to—do what?  Teach and grade papers?  Shop for Christmas?  Decorate and cook for the upcoming carload of six people, a dog and a rabbit that will be descending on her house for Christmas? 

 

So, I got out my trusty list of things I have had on my list forever.

 

1.      Master’s daughter gave me fabric to make quilt squares; sweet clueless daughter that she is.  But, in fairness to me, my sewing machine is not working, which seems like a pretty darn valid reason to skip to next item on list.

2.      I have an almost finished wedding ring quilt to finish.  I mean this thing has been ongoing for daughter-of-eleven’s last eight kids.  She has now lost the right to it, so it is up for grabs and has literally, one set of maybe sixteen squares left to put in.  See excuse  #1.

3.      I have fabric for ten of my thirteen grandchildren for individual quilts.  I quit buying fabric three grandchildren ago but I probably have enough to cover them too.  OH, and did I mention my sewing machine isn’t working?

4.      I wanted to give JRock a blue jean quilt.  He loved the one his mother gave him, but his stepfather threw it in the burn barrel.  IF I can get my machine working before Christmas, this actually moves up to #1 on the list.

5.      Painting of my brother:  This was a request by my mother.  Every year I say that this would be a good Christmas present for her.  Every time I have taken it out to work on, it is a very difficult thing for me to work on.  I started it so long ago that I feel like I need to start over as it just looks horrible to me.  I am my own worst critic.

6.      Several other paintings started; one of Master’s daughter at a dresser that I love and may even have been started fifteen years ago but it’s one I can finish rather than starting over.  I hope!

7.      Novel in final line edit.  YIPPPEEE!  We, Masters daughter and myself are working on that and are on chapter five or six now.  I know, I really should know where we are at but I just was not sure which spot was the best for the chapter break, so I left that in her hands. 

8.      Mystery novel needs major revisions.  I have actually started on this also but am working on book two of the Novel that is in final edit.  I have envisioned a five book series going from Middle school to YA.

9.      Children’s Picture book needs putting together for submission.  Every time I work on this, I use guidelines and then feel like I was better off with my very first edit.  This is really odd for me as I tend to edit to death, so I’m thinking I need to go with my instincts here.

10.  I have tons of supplies to make more polymer miniature fairies.  I enjoy them and took them up as I was getting weaker and weaker from the undiagnosed heart problem. Now that my heart is repaired, the eBay purchase price of fairies is down by two-thirds.  Gosh, I guess food is more important than fairies right now and, by the sound of the news, may be for some time to come.

11.  I hope to make several Christmas gifts and have stuff for them too but don’t dare list that stuff here.   Did not do and not going to happen now!

12.  One pair of socks. Started knitting them for me, kit gift from Master’s daughter, very slow growth.  Actually, I mainly work on them when I am with Master’s daughter, so cannot wait for Christmas.

13.  Yarn for at least three sweaters is sitting around here somewhere

14.  I sorted the Rubbermaids, in their storage area AND scanned all the photograph albums.  Now to scan the individual photos (THAT is going to take time.)  But, I did not find all of my yarn.  What I did find was approximately eight Rubbermaids of paperwork to go through.

15.  Crop, enhance, remove red eye, about 500 more photos I took at the wedding last weekend and get discs to bride & groom, mother and grandmother of bride, and  assorted others.  I figure that this is going to take three discs each.  DONE!!! THIS IS DONE, and it actually took four discs.

YIPPEEE!  Something is done. 

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Masters Daughter, Crazy Aunt Purl and Knitting

When I visited Master Daughter for her Master’s graduation, she gave me a present. She always gives the best presents and rarely at the correct holiday so I have forgotten whether these were for my birthday or Mother’s day or both. It doesn’t matter as it is actually better to get a gift “just because” than an expected, “oh, it’s her birthday, I’ve got to get something.”

I have knitted for years. I’m not the perfect knitter. I do not knit to kill. I knit because I like to and if I dropped a stitch and it’s far back and, I don’t think it will show, then so be it. I always told my pottery students, if you want perfect, go to Walmart and buy some mass produced dish. Hand made is special because of the imperfections, and boy do I give you special.

So, I was getting “pings” back, I think that may be the term but since I am really new at this, bare with me. Not sure that’s spelled right, so don’t take your clothes off, just be patient here. I decided to trail the pings back and see what was going on and there was Crazy Aunt Purl. Crazy Aunt Purl I have now spent the morning with Crazy Aunt Purl and feel like my lost half is living with four cats in some place that does not want to be part of LA, as I sit in Brown County, Indiana with a crazy chihuahua and five adults in a 1,000 square foot house. So, maybe it’s just wishful thinking that I was anywhere else.

Aunt Purl had this neat picture of her gorgeous, Duberry Heather, Paton’s Rumor Yarn and her socks, that she finished. I am so jealous. The gift Master’s daughter gave me was two skeins of a gorgeous variegated Noro yarn, two circular needles a cute little Knit Knack Sack (She knows my penchant for bags) and the book Knitting Circles Around Socks. 

She has been working on making socks for some time now and just had to share. I am a sweater person and love to knit sweaters. I knit both arms at once, as I get bored easily and you can only have so many sweaters with just one arm, so with this book, you can knit both socks at once, thus avoiding the necessity of knitting one and then having to knit an identical pattern again, at least if you have two feet and want to wear identical socks.

I started the socks right before the next visit, which was a month later for grandson’s graduation. I knitted to THE CUFFS, which is about the fourth row, right after cast on stuff and while my picture looked almost identical to the picture in the directions, something wasn’t right. So, I took the socks with, thinking my daughter could help me out. Wrong. She has never tried this method and, being brand new to knitting, she was lost too.

Masters Daughter is a smart kid. I believe she started her knitting career with a square and moved on to doll clothing. She wanted to make Grandma a sweater, booties and cap for the miniature baby doll she bought her for Christmas. Grandma is a doll nut. So, she is knitting on these during her break from teaching one day, and her team partner comes in and says, “Oh, I have nothing to do during my break, let me work on them.” At the end of the day, she hands Masters Daughter a completed layette. She is also one of those who tears out fifty rows due to a mistake. GAG here! 

So, Master’s Daughter, now sits with four tiny needles making a sock. I sit with two circular needles trying to figure out why one sock is facing the wrong way. Four rows is doable, so I ripped it out and started over.  When I got to row four, I again have one sock facing the wrong way on the needle. I think the dippers of Margarita Mix may have influenced me a bit so I decided to ponder the dilemma at home, where I ripped it out again. This is so, NOT like me. (The ripping out part, not the mistake part.)

So, this morning, when I found Crazy Aunt Purl’s blog and her photo of lusious yarn and her mitten, I had to show off the point I am at with my sock. See the picture in the book? See my empty circular needles?

Oh, well!  I am four pages from being 1/3 through my Edgy Middle Grade/Young Adult Fantasy Novel’s Final Edit. Irritating Chihuahua sleeps next to me. No wonder their years are seven of ours, every time they wake up they think it is a new day.

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Silence, Daughters and Knitting

I spent several days at my oldest daughter’s house last week.  I love education/learning, and  could be a full time student. So, I was very excited to attend my daughters “Master of Education” graduation ceremony at Notre Dame. She actually received her Master’s degree from Indiana University but the pomp and circumstance was at Notre Dame. The trip was my mother’s day gift to myself.

I love solitude and the four hour drive was great. I listened to one CD Cannonball Adderley’s finest hour, and drove in silence during the rest of the trip.  I am the kind of person who needs quiet time. I disappear during family reunions to recharge. The amount of noise produced by a room full of people is incredible and I sometimes think my head will explode if I don’t get away. I’ve always felt that I would thrive at the top of a mountain by just sending my work down. It should speak for itself anyway.

The solitude of my childhood may have contributed. My brother was six years older, and my sister did not grow up in our home. We lived semi-rural, with a farm behind us and empty lots on each side. TV was a constant. One of my favorite things to do now, is to turn off the tv, the minute other people leave the house. I do love movies though and Sharon, my daughter, and I spent the time together watching “chick flicks” and knitting.

Knitting is a new passion for her. Her teaching partner got her hooked and she is determined to do it with perfection. I take a bit more of a relaxed attitude with knitting. It is a hobby. I am perfectionist in my painting, and make many things I do more difficult than they should be, but have found out that you may see every imperfection, but others don’t usually. It doesn’t stop me, but I try. At this time my daughter  has four tiny needles surrounding the opening of a pink sock. She gave me a sock kit for Mother’s day. I usually knit sweaters. So, I strained my eyes with my new book, needles and fantastic yarn.

The yarn is varigated and I love the colors. “No” I answer my daughter, “I do not care that one sock is starting blue variegated and the other is starting more green.” (As I said, I am not a perfectionist. Intentionally, not. We did go visit a yarn shop and it was a feast for the eyes. I love colors anyway. I begin my paintings with washes of pure color. When I was “on the art circuit” and painting ten or more hours a day, I would be talking to someone at a reception but my mind would be painting their face. “Hmm, a bit of Thio Violet here and a shadow of green there.” I have been told that other people do not see these colors in flesh, but the world is a riot of color for me.

And, one more thing, as long as I am rambling. My daughter’s sixth grade “gifted” class has done some reviewing of my young adult novel. Good reports so far and some wonderful critiquing. My daughter has also made some suggestions and I was able to come home with a new idea to add to the book. Thought of, during the quiet moments in my car.  Hope you all take a few moments of silence to recharge your brain.

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