Random Things I've Learned

Never, ever, put a banana in a backpack. No amount of care can make it turn out well.

Sideways knit, short row garter stitch hats are an excellent use of handspun yarn, or any yarn of inconsistent gauge.

Large dogs are easier to housebreak than small dogs. I do not know if this is a characteristic of the dog, or if it is because I care much, much, more about the poo from a 90 pound animal than a five pound one.

Small children are both more work and more fun than I though possible
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To paraphrase Annie Lamott, Until I had a child, I was able to deceive myself that I was a good person. Now I know I am good enough, but it's an uphill climb.

I can never, ever, stop taking anti depressants. I would take them even if it was proven to shorten my life.

If I had to give up coffee, I could, but I hope I never have to.

Kind people seem to get more cancer than mean people.

Drunks seem to live forever- or does it just seem that way to me?

The best deaths for the dying seem to be different than the best deaths for the grieving.

Leave me a comment with a random thing you have learned, if you'd like.

Tender

This is son one and son two. The older one has just gotten a sombrero at a restaurant that provides those for birthday people. No age limit. I always get my sombrero, too.

I find myself wishing that I could freeze the world, and keep only these tender moments. I myself am very tender, as of late. I have been fighting with a loved one for almost three days- every time I think we have begun to climb out of the valley of the shadow of misunderstanding, we , or I, slide back in.

My mother, whom I should be cherishing, has been visiting on a nearly daily basis since her retirement. I am losing my mind, as she is an odd combination of tender hearted and sharp tongued, and cannot seem to put two words together without raising the hairs on my back. She also has a habit of putting things in the dishwasher other than dishes, where these things melt or are otherwise destroyed, and she is puzzled by this. See, they're not dishes, and that's why, but it does no good.

Even the knitting is suffering. I found myself, in the last few days, unable to follow a simple pattern, and have resorted to knitting a scarf out of two strands of lace weight, yarn over, knit two together. It's an uphill battle, but if I can persevere than I will have a token gift for one of the teachers. If I don't, well I will have ruined two balls of lace weight.

It all passes, good or bad, the good days end, the bad days end.

No Photos

Well, I've been putting off blogging until I charged the battery on the camera and uploaded photos, and then here we are, with no uploading to blogger. But rest assured, the blogger engineers are working on it! Because, engineers like nothing more than helping the clueless!!! Of, which, I am legion! Whatever! Still knitting. Had a mystery illness, which was, in retrospect, probably an RA flare up. Or something. But, it seems better, except that I nearly passed out while pulling weeds. As we all know, passing out is one's body's way of saying "look, weirdo, I've been telling you to lie down all day, and so I am now taking matters into mine own hands, as it were" . So I went into the porch and reclined in a plastic Adirondack chair until I felt better, and then I knit, and then Mr. Woolly had to pick up all the weeds off the side walk where I had flang them. Still have no photos, which makes it rather hard to say, oh look, I knit, because, well, it's sort of a photo dependent thing. So, off to lie down again, to keep my body from taking it over again. Brains! Brains are in charge!

One Done, One Started

The sweater under neath is Just one More Row pattern. The one on top is a sweater embryo, also from that company. It's called the heartbeat sweater , because it starts in the center. No swatch. I'm taking deep breaths on that one. Seems good, so far.

Rainy season has started, and with it the complete lack of sense exhibited by local drivers. What is it with these people? It's a little bit of water, falling from the sky.

Otherwise, I'm knitting Crazy Aunt Pearl's pumpkin hat. It has been declared too silly for boys, but I will wear my hat with Boing Boing PRIDE I tell you.

Quilt with Dog

Clearly, she's brilliant. She immediately knew it was a quilt, the moment I laid it on the just swept floor to baste. She was also able to instantly detect that it had less than the proper amount of dog hair on it, so perhaps her big fuzz butt was required. Quite the girl, our Ginger.

My 9 yo son helped a lot with this one. He did a good bit of the strip piecing and helped with lay out decisions. He said the house makes it look like a farmer's fields, so that's what we'll call it.

I wish I could pay for the long arm quilter to quilt every single top, as she does beautiful work. In stead I will probably just do some minimal straight line quilting on the machine through the indigo parts. I was pretty happy to find this much indigo dyed cotton at a fabric outlet place. It will look really nice as it fades.