I promise never to stash another thing!

I have this bad habit of stashing things. I may be leaving the house and stash something so it is out of sight. I may be temporarily hiding a present to be wrapped later. Whatever the case is, it usually means that I will not find it again without considerable trouble.

This time I hid the presents that JRock had gotten for his two brothers. I have spent hours and hours pulling out every Rubbermaid in storage and searching them, in the hopes of finding these two gifts. This has been going on for a week now.

Today, I went out to the cold, cold porch five times and went through approximately thirty Rubbermaids once and thirteen of them again, in desperation to find those gifts. Gaffer is due in at 11:24 pm tonight and I want to get this out of the way.

I did find a bag of stocking stuffers that I must have purchased last summer. That was a surprise for me even. I am ready to give up. I have also searched a long dresser several times and behind furniture, etc, all to no avail. I am sitting here bemoaning my idiocy when husband reaches down, opens a box next to his chair, that I thought contained umpteen bottles of medicine he had recently received, and says, “Here they are.”

I believe my days of stashing things are at an end. I do not want to go through that again.

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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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