Doomsday ahead...

Got shamelessly drunk at our datenight dinner last night (yay grandparents!) due to the big boy plying me with $10 glasses of kiwi sav blanc...needless to say no progress was made on sock madness' newest Reversi gansey pattern, but the time was indeed well spent. ;)

Plus side:

The weather is beautiful, wish you were here (Indian Rocks Beach just outside of Tampa).

It appears you can consume multiple gin and tonics and still knit coherently if you also swim and sweat profusely.

Big scary down side:

Tomorrow looms large in my psyche. We head for home Saturday morning, so have figured to tell the small people about Willy tomorrow. (found a pic of him snoozing that I had posted on The Chum here BTW) Oh how I dread that. We lost my parent's dog just before the holidays and it was very hard on #1, #2 as usual took it in stride, very circle of life, and #3 in true two-ish style still asks after him everytime we visit. I think telling them will be the equivalent of ripping my heart out of my chest with my bare hands....

A Wally World respite...

The hub and I woke this morning determined to turn this mojo around. (though the FIL is now sick....but I absolutely refuse to contemplate the infectious implications of that right now)

Despite my prophesy, we did indeed find Busch Gardens open and delightfully slow this morning. We had a fab day with #1 and #2. There were hippos. There were soggy rides. There were french fries. There were several free beers.

Oh yeah, and we found a kick ass french bakery within walking distance. Complete with french baker. #1 has rightfully declared the superiority of the croissant as a bread form.

Much better. A bit peaceful, or at least calm.

...and I managed to not cry a once.Until now that is when I noticed the big gaping hole in my heart again. The next few days I hope are as good as today...but I want to stop time. No more passing minutes to bring us closer to hell please. Let's just stay here in purgatory please.

Nothing's really real until we get home. Until we tell the kids. Is reality strictly necessary? Isn't there a way to get around that? No? You're really, really sure? Well bollux that.

For those of you that want to keep score...

...here you go, my tale of woe. Start counting the ways in which the fates are mistreating me while on vacation.

1) The cab company sent a car instead of a van to pick us up, resulting in much scrambling and a last minute dash to the airport, where we got on the plane to find that NWA had reassigned our seats even though they knew we were traveling with 3 small children leaving us split up all over. Wonderfully nice people accommodated us and then watched the stews watch us install a carseat then inform us that it couldn't be in a row behind an exit row, necessitating removal and repositioning of said carseat and all 5 of us yet again while several hundred people glared holes in our heads. Y'all know about my compulsive tendencies...you can guess how wound I was by the time we got down here.

2) Less than 24 hours in Florida and the better part of a day is spent on the phone with our house/dog sitter, my parents, our vet, an emergency vet and various neighbors after our oldest dog collapsed. We had to have him euthanized while we were thousands of miles away. Seriously. This goes into my "proof that there is no benevolent god" file. No goodbye. No holding his big slobbery head in my lap as he faded out of our life. We weren't there when he was hurting and confused. He's just gone. He won't be there when we get home.

Somehow I have to find a time to tell my 2, 5 and 7 year olds that he won't be waiting for them when we open the door. This blows. I can't even process it or I cry and cry and cry. THIS IS INHUMAN.

3) ...and to top it off a contractor set up a wet saw outside out condo this morning to work on a remodel next door. Do you have any concept of how loud those are? So we re packed 7 people and 2 now full kitchens and spent day 2 of vacation moving to a new, hopefully quieter, condo.

(which has WIFI, so I can keep you, constant reader, informed of all our mishaps)

4) ...and we just tried to wander across the street to get an icecream after all that and guess what? Of course they are closed. Seriously, cut a girl a break please!

I fully expect to arrive at Bush Gardens tomorrow and have it be closed at which point my husband will start channeling Chevy Chase and I may become an alcoholic.

Seriously. I'm on vacation and I just want to go home because now I'm so worried about our little girl dog. But I don't ever want to go home because Willy isn't there. Looking out at this beautiful expanse of Gulf of Mexico and all I can do is cry because part of my life has been ripped out of my heart.

ESCAPE!

I'm off on vacation! Tomorrow! Really, really early! Like so early I don't think the grown-ups in our house will sleep at all because we have so much to do! There is so much bickering! I am crabby! I may have an aneurysm before tomorrow comes!

Oh so much to say (one of those weeks with more than my fair share going on) but oh so little time, so here are some pretty pictures:

This is the stash I am contemplating bringing for the start of Sock Madness round 2. I really shouldn't. It's not starting until Tuesday and by then I'm sure everyone will be in full meltdown, but I don't know if I can help myself. We've got DIC Smooshy in Gothic Rose sitting under Cherry Tree Hill Supersock that I can't remember the name of and the band is in the middle of, which is sitting next to 2 balls of Trekking that used to be part of a hat I was crocheting but when I saw the pattern teaser I frogged it cause I think it might be perfect. The big fellow on the end is Lisa Souza Sock! in Marsquake. The DPNs are my first, bought because I fear what airport security just might do to my Addi Turbo lace circs that I magic loop on.

...and the plane project. My first Seven Deadly Spins Club shipment. Mmmmmm gluttony.

OK kiddies, that be it. Off 'til the 5th. Play nice. Have fun. Try something new.

Zombies Vanquished!

The Big Boy walked in the door as I was tossing dinner on the table and I literally grafted the last toe and weaved ends as the fam ate. Was among the first 20ish finishers in my division, which is quite respectable I believe. Here they are, my vanquished zombies:

The yarn is by Dye Trying, done just for me by the dyer Tikabelle herself as a part of a L&V swap. Lovely zombie skin colorway, eh? The pattern is wicked stretchy with all of those dropped stitches, perfect for ridiculously wide feet like mine.

Lesson learned: Perseverance pays. Patience is a virtue. (and helps you not split the yarn when grafting which is a MAJOR problem when you go to snug those handily kitchnered stitches and you find yourself having to take many, many deep breaths and tear it all out and redo it when you hear a clock ticking like a fog horn in your head and all you want to do is dash out the door to meet fabulous friends like Bubbo and Joy for a bit of crochet and dinner and dessert and a beer thrown in for sanity's sake.)

Off to rescue the house and catch up on STUFF. So much STUFF in my head that needs letting out it's amazing my brain hasn't exploded. I'm sure the madness has killed off some brain cells. Let's hope the new neuronal connections were worth it.

Madness....

One Zombie down, one to go. Waaaaay too much going on around here for me to be very efficient, but it seems I'm still in the mix.

Today's lesson: Tim Tams rock. International law should read: "Every man, woman and child residing in either Australia or New Zealand shall forthwith send regular shipments of Tim Tams to peoples deprived of the aforementioned sugary goodness by their lack of geographic proximity to establishments that sell said biscuit wonderfulness."

ZOMBIES!!!

The Zombies have taken me hostage. There shall be little chitter chatter until they are complete. Want to know what I be blabbering about...go here.

Lessons learned thus far:
1) Sprint type activities are perhaps not advisable when you are responsible for small people and animals. They simply do not understand and try to play with the yarn.

2) Knitting instructions are at times mind-blowingly obtuse. Take this whole slipping stitches thing. For some reason you are supposed to possess powers that allow you to know which way to slip said stitches under about 5 million possible scenarios without the specifics being stated. I now know that in an eye of partridge hell flap the slip stitches should be done knitwise if they are alternating with knit stitches or else it looks like a big square o' nothin'....or in my case half a square o' nothin' and half a square of pleasingly patterned knitin'.

Live and learn.

Fun and Games, Part the First

If you don't want to know, go no further. This week is apparently dubbing itself "Week O' Fun", starting off with a huge bang. My first package from The Seven Deadly S(p)ins arrived with yesterday's mail!








Again, I warn you to venture no further unless you really want to know. Here there be gluttony:





















(how fun is that??? 4 , count them one two three FOUR colors specially made by the Unique Sheep in FOUR sickeningly sweet colorways to be merged together into one sockishly sweet, overindulgent creation.)
...and it's associated goodies (cause come one now, it IS gluttony...there must be goodies):
























That teeny hank? It's called "sinful" yeah for chocolate! And the jelly bellies...inspiration of the unique sheepy dying goddess be my guess.

The specs are up for the first sock maddness pattern, to be released Thursday. I am a ball of anxiety trying to figure out how I will find time to make a genuine try at getting through the first round...must start swatching!

It's a week of long overdue fun. Hang on, hopefully it only gets better.

It's NatCroMo...come play!

It be National Crochet Month, and Kaet is doing a NatCroMo Freeform CAL. She posts a prompt each and every day, gently leading you through the scary-to-some (AHEM) process of freeform crochet. They're short and sweet and oh so doable in only a few minutes with only a few scraps of yarn. That's mine, after Day 4. It has a little stumpy squiggly tail. I loves it.

No pink elephants!

Good news, good news!

There is no pink elephant in the middle of the living room. At least the one that has spent the last few weeks pounding on the front door and trying to sneak in the back has for the time being vacated the premises and we hope he won't be back.

Yes boys and girls, this means that as far as we know there is nothing absolutely nothing wrong with #2's heart, brain or eyes!

IT IS NOT A TUMOR! (best said Schwarzenegger-style)

We've ventured into the deepest, darkest realms of scary land and emerged relatively intact. Last week literally brought me to my knees. There were moments I couldn't breathe, couldn't stand, couldn't think. #3 picked up on it all and regressed to his monkey child ways, constantly attached to one or the other of us and waking up I swear a million times a night. #1 was snarky as only a snarky 7 year old girl could be. #2 was of course his ever mellow, oblivious self, charming the socks off every nurse and doctor he came within 20 feet of.

Can one have an emotional hangover? I believe I have one. After an initial few days of giddy relief, I have crashed HARD. All I want to do is sleep, eat, sleep some more, play with yarn and sleep yet again. Hopefully we'll all get back on track soon. If not we'll drown in dirty laundry. Here's to hoping!

Now we wait to see if there are any more "episodes". Hopefully it was all a fluke and they won't be back. If not, we start checking out stuff like blood sugar, brain waves and the like. All things meds handily deal with. These I can handle. (not that I want to, but hey, it's no brain tumor!)

After putting it down for fear of doing permanent hard to wither it or myself, I have again picked up my Secret of the Stole ii:

I'm into clue 3, somewhere's around row 158. As clue 7 came out last week, I'm a tad behind. Can't be helped. Lace apparently should not under any circumstances be attempted with a brain the consistency of marshmallow fluff. Believe me, I tried...and wanted to poke my eyes out for all the tinking. I do think I have some idea of where she's going with the clues. Seems my musical geekdom is serving me well....or at least it seems that way. We'll see how things play out. Only 2 clues left to come, so I'll know shortly.

In a moment of crazed desperation, I joined Sock Madness, which should kick off next week I hope. I cannot be held responsible. It's sock knitting. It's a contesty game with PRIZES. And it's technically considered research for some crochet fun and games I've been mulling over with Bubbo. Sock Wars turned out to be totally not my style, but I have hopes for this model. They're very organized, orderly and have a set of clearly laid out rules and regs...and there is no postal complication, no performance tied to that of others...it's all you and your needles in clearly defined rounds with beginning and end points. I love the orderly life!

They posted some general material guidelines for the seven projects they have planned...and that sent me stash-diving:

This is all of the un-committed sock yarn I have. Most of it from swaps last year. A couple I bought for myself without plans for it's future. Enough for 14 pairs of socks. Uff. Hopefully this will see 6 of them meet their sock-ish destiny. Materials for the 7th pair they listed I got to shop for. At the Loopy Ewe. Can you feel me smiling? They had used some superwash laceweight (yep lace...don't ask, I don't know how it all works up yet, but they hint at some dual colored sock with a slip stitch pattern...) from Tess' Yarns, but Tess was closed for 2 weeks to attend Stitches...so I went looking...or really I didn't quite have the fortitude for that, so I just emailed Sheri and she popped right back to me with Dream in Color Baby...superwash merino heaven. In my weakened condition I was really powerless to resist the suggestion:


These are Cocoa Kiss and Lipstick Lava (with the fun little Loopy extras they toss in their packages). I've got about twice as much as I'll need, so I'll even have enough for something extra fun afterward. I figure it's justified since it's the only yarn I'll need to buy for the games. Right?

That about catches us up, though I'm sure I've missed something. I don't think all my neurons are firing in quite an orderly fashion yet. Things pop in and out and I rarely keep hold of them for long. Eternal thanks for all of the support. All of your messages, prayers and magic mojo are deeply appreciated. It apparently takes a virtual village to maintain my sanity in times of crisis!

One.More.Day.

One more day. One more test.

Tomorrow #2 goes in for a MRI and angiogram of his brain. Then we shall know if there's anything we need to know. Everything else has checked out okie dokie, so we're now down to the big one. Cross those fingers, toes, hooks and needles people. We need all the luck we can get.

In the meantime, MY brain may explode. If there existed a word to describe something magnitudes beyond "stressed" that would be me. I swear I've gained 10 pounds in the last 2 weeks. And I've developed a twitch below my left eye. Put that on top of the sleep deprivation and I probably look like a freakin' maniac.

...and this is my punishment

I, Dawn, solemnly swear to never, ever, ever again be sarcastic about my child's maladies.

See, last Friday wasn't the first episode of green sight for kiddo #2. He had actually been seeing things in green a few weeks ago. Coupled with the other minor oddities that accompanied the greenishness, flags have been raised and we're in for a slew of medical tests over the next few weeks that I sincerely hope come to a big bunch of nothing...but my pediatric physical therapist brain that for years only saw the worst possible testing outcomes is kicking the monsters out from under the bed in droves.

So, we're going to the land of pretty, pretty pictures again:


Sock club once again led me far astray. Three (yes one, two, three) hanks of Paca Peds came home with me. (oh, don't you start, you would have bought them too...with the club discount I'm lucky I only came home with 3.) The above are Caribbean Chocolate and Harvest. Here's Fireside being worked up to be Nancy Bush's Family Adventure Sock:

The stripes are PERFECTION and the yarn is fabulous for this pattern (which is a nifty 2 row repeat that gives great effect). It's got great hand feel. Love it.

One more thing off the to do list:


The next iteration of the Mossy Cowl (free Interweave pattern!), this time for my sister in frosty Milwaukee. Again done with one strand of Knitpicks Alpaca cloud held with one of a mohair/silk blend. May it's peppermint perfection keep her toasty.

Have a few other projects finishing up as well as a SOTSii lace update (though that's going nowhere fast with my brain creating stressed out spaghetti of my attention span), hopefully soon. Send healthy brain waves our way, eh?

SIGH!

All set to post, HUGE picture fun filled post, then I had to pick up sick kid #2 from school. Think it's bad to be seeing everything green? Y-eah. Will be getting back to you all a bit later.

Tomatoes CAN rock all winter long...

Back on Tuesday, when I wasn't doubled over trying to forcibly expel my lungs from my body 500 times a day, that day when the house didn't look like this:

...yeah, that last day when I felt I could tackle a project...that dayI succumbed to my tomato craving.

It hits about this time every year. I start dreaming of those tiny grape ones fresh off the vine. BLTs with a HUGE slice of heirloom T. Big bowls full of tomatoes and basil tossed with some great olive oil and syrupy balsamic. SIGH, what's a gal to do in January in Minnesota?

Nab a bag full of the pathetic pale pink excuses for plum tomatoes gracing the local produce section and f ire up the oven...that's what.

Confused? Don't be. I am here to share the mid-winter key to the tomato-y goodness of your (erm..or perhaps only my) dreams.

Here's what you need: several pounds of plum tomatoes, a head or two of garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sugar, salt/pepper and a roasting pan.

Here's what you do: roast them. Set your oven to 275ish degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the tomatoes into quarters length-wise. Scoop out the seeds. Throw those away. Put the tomatoes in the roasting pan. Peel a head or two of garlic. Leave the cloves whole. Put them in the pan with the tomatoes. Toss with a couple of chugs of good olive oil, a tablespoon or two of balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of sugar. Salt and pepper to taste. It will look something like this:


Put the pan in the oven. Check on it in an hour or so. Give it a nice stir. Talk lovingly of it's grand aroma. Pop it back in the oven for another hour or so. Try not to salivate all over yourself. Stir it again. Continue until it looks something like this: (really, this takes hours and hours and hours)

The tomatoes will be very shriveled. The garlic will be lusciously golden. They both will be coated with a thick, syrupy sauce. What you have now is a big pan of caramelized tomato/garlic heaven to toss with pasta, dress a bowl of arugula or adorn thick slices of crusty bread. Buon appetito!

I'm sick.

I'm so sick my coffee tastes a bit like pooty.

Pooty with stale cigarettes floating in it.

UGH.

The Eye Candy Post

Lots of pictures for you...very few words. I'm foggy from lack of oxygen again me thinks...yes, #3 and I are apparently facing yet another bout of crud. Darn gooey germy "huggy mommy" demanding teething toddler!

I've been lax in picture posting, so here you go...eye candy. No pattern links now. If you see something you like, lemme know and I'll get it up.

The Mossy Cowl I made Icy for my mom.

The baby's Alpine Boots. (All 3 got pairs for the holidays, but I only have pics of these. My bad. I was just so happy to have them all done...)

Yes, one of the Ripple blankets has actually become a real, functioning blanket. Also for #3 for the holidays.

FINALLY something for me. Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Rainbow, worked up into Chloe Nightingale's big Bobble Headband.

Soaps in Sacks....or how I endured supporting my husband during the Packer's dismal playoff performance this past Sunday.

The first of 2 socks I promised #2.

...and because I don't have nearly enough to be working on right now...

...I started Secret of the Stole ii.

Yes, my name is Dawn and I fully admit that I have a BIG problem.

Vengeful

Yes, thoughts of sweet, sweet vengeance have filled my heart.

The brilliant powers that be that recently decreed that since pediatric decongestants do not actually cure the incurable common cold and some people apparently can neither read nor follow the very clear dosing instructions printed on the package...those powers that be that therefore pulled said decongestants off the shelves entirely, stating that home remedies are just as effective...those very powers that be need to be locked in a very small house alone with a very congested, goo dripping, not sleeping or eating because they are so unfalteringly stuffed up toddler for a week armed with only a steamy shower and a nasal aspirator.

My bet is pediatric decongestant would be back on the market pronto.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I am such a sheep. Saw this thread on the L&V Message Board of Dooooom and of course proceeded to start my own starter. In 10 days, Amish Bread-y wonderfulness shall be mine.

It could be yours too. How-to here. Why it works here.

(and it so should be fermenting away in your kitchen right now. if you haven't had the pleasure before, this stuff is gooooooood. makes the best apple bread evah.)

Finishalongapalooza, Stage Two....

...is apparently denial.

The frog pond projects have been dutifully liberated, are entered in my Ravelry Stash so I stay accountable to them, and are now in happy pretty balls residing in baggies with the patterns they hopefully will be worked into this year.

...but apparently I figure as long as I don't face the mountian of WIPs I unearthed it's ok to start more. Damn sock club. Just look what it made me do:

Mmmm-hm. That is in fact Chery Tree Hill Silky Kid, Peacock colorway. It totally doesn't suit the club's cable eyelet cable pattern this month, but who could resist??? So, I've found a happy lace pattern in Ann Budd's Knitting Socks and am into the first repeat.

Really. It's not that bad. If you consider that I already had the perfect squishy, quick to work up yarn in my stash:
(Dream in Color Classy in Beach Fog) Really. Don't look at me like that. Is one not allowed to purchase sock yarn at sock club with the express purpose of making socks...in this case just not the socks for the club.

So now I have a few more things to finish...who's counting?

Finishalongapalooza, Stage One.

On their latest podcast, the Misses Lime and Violet announced their new marathon "along" for 2008...the Finishalongapalooza. Idea being you actually finish what you have started, freeing up mental ram, hooks and needles along the way, purging your soul of the guilt inherent in stashing languishing projects behind pieces of furniture thus accruing good yarn mojo. Details are still to come for the most part, though there is a thread on their Ravelry board. If you're operating outside of Ravelry, hang on, it shall come...in a big way judging from the banter.

You've most likely gleaned from things laying about here that this is something I need to embrace. Yeah.

So today I started the process of unearthing projects...and about doubled the horrifying list I had in my brain. Made me a bit ill. Decided I must start small or sink forever into despair. Today's baby step is facing the frog pond:

...which really was not as large as I thought it would be. We have"

• one baby hat (the green thing in the corner. great pattern the yarn obscured totally so I never finished)
• the Lisa Souza Violet's Pink Ribbon misty meadow (pattern out of Scarf Style) scarf. (I will never ever finish it and let's face it, pink scarves are not me. This shall be repurposed as socks.)
• 2 pairs of socks from my sock club. One in Tofuttsi (love the yarn, but why oh why did I think I would wear daintily ruffled socks???) and one in Wildfoote (on which I am enjoying neither the yarn nor the cable charts. cables will just have to wait a bit longer it seems). The Tofuttsi I shall set aside for another pattern and the Wildfoote I shall attempt to find a new home.
• In the middle is an Insubordiknit monster hat kit, one of two I bought before I was even knitting...purchased with the express purpose of creating fabulous crocheted versions of her patterns. One worked gloriously (you'll hear about that in Stage 2) but this one not so much. Needs to be frogged and given a new, much more glorious form.
• The pinkish/purplish projects to the leftish are two attempts at fingerless mitts. Neither attempted very well. Now I have some bulky Aisha Celia wool and 2 skeins of Atacama to do something with. SIGH.
• Deep, deep SIGH for the last. The brown mass at the far left is 2800 yards of Ecowool originally destined to be the Cinnabar Coat from Interweave Crochet. About half way through I came to the realization the I don't like wearing fitted coats. Played around with knitting it, but urg, what I was attempting was just not right, and let's face it I haven't been knitting long enough and don't have sufficient garment experience to wing it. Am thinking some of it shall be an oversized pullover hoodie of some sort, worked in the round if I can find such a pattern.....hmmm, now that I'm thinking about it, me thinks there was some sort of crocheted hooded cardi in that same issue of IC...will have to check that out.

So, 8 never to be finished projects unearthed and faced...to be lovingly frogged and rewound in hopes of resurrection. Check.

Next step: face the WIP line-up...shudder.