Loose Ends

The last few weeks and the next few coming up are all about tying up loose ends. Sometimes literally

as in Carisa’ afghan,

but more often it’s been on the figurative side. I could have moved to Colorado months ago, or at least a few weeks ago when we closed on the house; instead, we chose to stay for Carisa’s 30th birthday party. Carisa’s whole family came to town from Green Bay, Wisconsin to help her celebrate. Carisa’s mom has been bunking with me. It was quite convenient at first with both of us making things for the party. After that was over, her mother and I just chatted like schoolgirls on a sleepover. We went to Stitches on Sunday (can you believe they wouldn’t let you take cameras in?). Today was my first day off from all the festivities -  Carisa took her family to see the Winchester Mystery House. I stayed at home to work on my gloves.

Not that I need them. Kyle, who is looking after our place until we get there, said it’s been in the low to mid 70s (°F, that is) this past week. It’s been in the mid 50s here. Hmm.

Carisa’s mom is a crafter like the rest of us. She loves to knit and crochet (she has been working on mittens while she’s been here), and she adored Stitches. We saw so many different fibers and fiber arts there. I learned about locker hook rugs (not that I need a new hobby, but I think one found me) and Naomi found the most amazing knitter’s purses. I think I need one, but given the price of them I think I need to put more consideration into the possible purchase. I bought a ton of yarn and fiber – I even found an 8oz. bag of cashmere fiber in a bin! When I brought it to Jamie at her Urban Fauna booth, she commented on what a good price it was. I felt awesome. At the end of our trip, Carisa and her mom presented me with a bag of wool locks as a thank you present for letting Carisa’s mom stay with me. Don’t tell anyone, but Carisa’s mom’s presence has been quite a treat for me – I can’t stop chatting with her.

Ah, that will be the last fiber show I see while I live here. I think in the future, fiber trade shows will be a reason for me to come visit my friends in San Francisco. Maybe I won’t have to stop going to them when I move.

It’s weird to realize “this is the last time I will do this” or “this is the last time I will go here.” It’s almost surreal. Moving East has always felt to me like the return to reality from a fairytale land. When I moved to Florida from Hawai’i it was a pretty cruel jolt, as a matter of fact. I had to wake up 5 hours earlier than I was used to so I could get to school. In Hawai’i, Fridays were shorter than the rest of the school week. In Florida, it was back to the old “every day’s the same” feeling. I don’t know, maybe I’m just strange, but leaving California gives me the same feeling of coming back to reality.

I thought for awhile I might have seen my last foster kitten in San Francisco, but just a few days ago I asked Toni to send some bottle-feeders my way. We still get the occasional orphaned kitten this time of year. The only catch is that the kittens have to be able to live in the crib I have for them – I have no kitten room any more. I still have not seen a kitten, but I have 3 weeks left. I must be crazy to be that lonely for kittens.

With no kittens, I feel I have very little to say. I mean, sure, I still do my fiber arts, but let’s face it – the knitting/crocheting isn’t half as cute as a fuzzy kitten face. The knitting doesn’t get sick or learn to walk for the first time. Thank goodness the knitting doesn’t poop, because with the way I let the projects run freely around my house, I’d have a mess. I don’t think it would be easy to litter train an afghan. The thing is, it doesn’t get out of bed and come happily running to see me when I open the door, either.

I am a glutton for punishment.

Old foes

One thing no one can ever accuse me of is being vain. Otherwise, I wouldn’t show you this:

I look stoned here, and really huge. I have put on weight recently – ever since the end of November/beginning of December  I have put on about 1 pound a week. Heck, I ate only a bowl of oatmeal and a baby carrot one day and the next morning I had gained ½ pound. I am taking this up at my endocrinologist’s office next week, as it might be a sign that my hormones are unbalanced again. It could be the thyroid hormones, or I may no longer be pre-diabetic. We’ll just have to see. I have also been very sick from all the traveling. I think I slept about 40 hours out of a 48 hour period this weekend. I believe I am getting better now, just in time to head to Denver tomorrow.

So, why would I post this picture? Because I finally remade the neckline on Blaze, and it worked! Michael is asleep, so I had to set the timer on my camera so I could show you my masterpiece. The sweater is still too big for me, which is why I am giving it to a friend from the shelter. But finally, it’s no longer looking at me from my WIP bin, mocking my incompetence. HA!

I also beat down another opponent that has been making regular appearances here since I started blogging (a year ago in just a few days, actually). These:

are also off my to-do (or rather, to-avoid-at-all-costs) list. I photographed Michael modeling these the other day just to prove that the first sock does indeed have a mate now. I won’t be able to present them to Donald this week, but hopefully he will be in class in 2 weeks so I can present him with the kilt hose then.

I have no idea why knitting projects become enemies. I always start them so enthusiastically, but at some point certain projects become things I want to avoid. My best guess is that they are projects in which something has gone wrong. I can say for certain that with Blaze, I was just so crushed by the fact that I spent forever working on it, only to have yet another sweater that does not fit me. My friends have always told me that if anyone could solve a knitting problem, it’s me. It’s not that I didn’t believe them – knitting is one of the few things in which I am willing to admit I have talent. I can look at something and sculpt it from yarn in the same way a marble sculptor can release something recognizable from a hunk of rock. I think my problem is that I find it hard to look my failures in the face.

With the kilt hose, the problem was that I had to remake them about 3 times before they were right. The first time, the socks were too tight around the calf and too short. I had to rip back the sock and start the increases earlier, and I had to add more of them. On the second iteration, I made enough increases, but I failed to take into consideration that when a sock is too narrow, it pulls some of the fabric from the length to make up for the lack of circumference. That’s why mass produced socks fit so many people despite our very different foot shapes. As long as the volume is the same, the exact measurements don’t really matter. On the third attempt, the width and the length were correct in the leg, but the whole heel/gusset area was a little too tight. While this is still a problem, I convinced Donald to try to live with it. The thing is, Michael told me that after wearing his kilt hose for awhile, the things that fit perfectly started to hang a little loosely. I think that the fabric relaxes a little over time, and I don’t want to remake something that just needed to be broken in. The ghillies we dance in start out really tight as well, but in a month or so they start to conform to your foot and stretch out. If they fit just right when you get them, they’ll be too big before long. So, I think that I hated the socks because I remade them so many times, only to have them turn out less-than-perfect.

I suspect that with most of the projects I learned to hate, I could come up with reasons just like the ones I just described. I wonder, do you other knitters have insight as to why you come to hate a project you were just thrilled to cast on?

It’s good to want things

I’ve realized that for once in a long time, I have a list of things that I really want but can’t or shouldn’t have now. The top of that list is probably Wisteria. I love her so much. The thing is, I also love my other 3 cats and my husband. Of the 4 of them, I think only Serra would be happy if I adopted another kitten. Sigh.

What else is on that list?

• Well, there’s a spinning wheel. I have a favorite at the moment, but I am planning to try out a few more and wait until I have a house with a craft room for it.
• I also want a drum carder. I understand that brand isn’t so important. I can get that soon because it’s smaller (and I can still spin the fiber on my spindle). The thing is, I am waiting until August 30th when a spinning (and knitting) supply store with set business hours opens here in town. I have high hopes for Urban Fauna Studio. I talked to Blas, the proprietor of the store, and he was so nice. I think he spoke with me for about 20 minutes about what the store will carry, what events they have planned, etc.
• I want/need a niddy noddy to skein my handspun yarn. I have to wait for the store to open for that, too.
• I want a freaking house! The housing market is so expensive here in San Francisco. A modest house (I’m talking small 3/2) goes for about $1,000,000. No, I didn’t add an extra 0. We weren’t hit by the housing crisis, and what’s more, houses in the safe neighborhoods near public transit have continued to appreciate in value.

I believe that if you don’t want anything (and I’m not just talking about material posessions here) then you have no reason to live. What’s the point in waking up in the morning if you don’t want to accomplish anything? I think that’s why a lot of people die right after they retire: they want nothing else from the world. Me – I’m not going to die for a reason like that. There’s always something else to knit. Besides, I always want to do something to make the world better, from raising foster kittens or making the entire country no-kill. Those are some mighty big goals.

Speaking of big goals – I have completed every goal I set for the Ravelympics. Jen’s socks were my final goal. I finished them with just a few hours to spare. I had been sick (still am, actually) for most of the day and I thought that I might miss my goal. I guess ambition won out here and I got them done. I won’t be mailing them until I finish designing a cat toy for Jen’s cats, but that will go much more quickly.

It feels good to be down to 3 (and a half – I still need to make a second kilt sock for Donald) WIPs. All I have left is:

1. Blaine’s baby blanket
2. Carisa’s afghan
3. Clapotis

That’s it. Ideally I’ll keep it down to 6 from here out. I do have to start a set of 3 dishcloths soon since my brother’s family will be here in a few weeks and I want to send them home with the cloths. I think that those will take at most 3 days. I also want to start a piece of cat furniture from a pattern I got here. After Buttercup burrowed into a shelf of my stash yarn, I promised to make her something if she just didn’t do that anymore. I don’t mind her sleeping with the yarn, but she tends to wreck my nice, neat, and (for once) organized piles. I haven’t made anything for them in a long time and they keep snuggling the cat afghan I just made. It’s sweet, and I want to give them something of their very own.

So, I am going to go to sleep with just a few things left on my WIP list. I wonder what it will feel like..?

I’ve got knitting to do – back off!

On our Wednesday knit night, Kristy came to visit. She wanted to pick up the hats we had made thus far and to meet some of the people helping with her project. She was late to our gathering, but she had a very interesting story to tell. Apparently as she was racing away from work to get to the train in time, a guy driving in front of her just jumped from his still moving car. Many other people had stopped and called for help, so she kept going. I think she was feeling a little guilty about not stopping, but honestly, if too many people stop it creates a bigger back-up and makes things worse. It was a bit of a Weird-Al moment:

Kristy said all she could think was “I’ve got knitting to do – back off!” Don’t worry, you’re not a bad person – quite the opposite.

Kristy has far exceeded her original 300 hat goal. She had knitters from across the country, from foreign countries, and knitters who learned the craft solely so they could donate to her cause. It is truly amazing to me how generous people can be. Our group only committed to 15 hats and we sent her home with 30. Dude.

I tried to finish my 7th – and final – hat for her project while she was here, but I had hostessing duties and I just missed the goal despite furious knitting. Carisa will mail it to her for me, but still, I wanted to finish in time. In any case, here it is in 2 views:

At 11:59pm on Thursday I finished my 4th Ravelympics project.

The Romantic Cardigan, in all it’s imperfect glory. There were a few problems special design features in this one. First of all, the pattern was full of mistakes. There are comments on Amazon about this issue. I couldn’t get the stitch count correct for the main body portion, so I had to count the stitches on every row and fudge the rest. The border for the main body has some instructions that are impossible if you complied with earlier instructions. I had a hard time finding the written errata for this pattern, but I didn’t think to look in time to do anything about it if there was something. Oh well.

I also had something happen with the yarn in this project. The ball bands all claimed that the yarn belonged to the same dye lot. When I got to the actual crochet, I learned that this was a huge LIE! In person it isn’t quite so obvious, but the camera tells no lies. I wonder how this happened. Maybe the ball bands came off and someone just randomly replaced them? Maybe it was a factory error?

As for the kittens -

Cute as ever. I got the orange guy’s tongue by accident. He begs for his food by holding my leg and meowing while I am busy scooping it onto the plates. Tiki was having a “cute session” – she was sleepy and lying in bed, lazily posing for me. The picture of Sunshine yawning was actually part of the same picture of Tiki yawning.

We are keeping (for foster) the 3 kittens that I acquired this weekend. We do not yet have a name for the mostly white kitten – any suggestions for the comments? We’re calling the black and white girl Panda. The orange fellow is Puddles. That boy just tinkles anywhere, even right in front of his food. He’s just learning, so I’ll give him a break. The others have already caught on to the whole litter box thing. The only time they miss is when they have diarrhea.

Which brings me to the next challenge. The boys and Panda have the vomit virus that the Constellations caught months ago. It is accompanied by diarrhea. You know, it almost looks like food poisoning, except that all of the kittens eat from the same plates, so they would all have it. The sick ones are on antibiotics and fluids for the moment. I knew that continuing health was too good to be true. Puddles feels so bony – almost like Moonlight did when I got her.

Sunshine made weight yesterday. She is adoptable now, but she won’t pass behavior at the shelter. I am going to have to advertise her on Craigslist or something like that and make appointments for her adopters. She is a total sweetheart – if she is in the kitten room. If she is in an open space, she freaks out and runs for a hiding space. Michael and I are trying to give her intense snuggling while we watch TV, but she is trying to resist rehabilitation. She’ll need a home with patient parents and no small or particularly loud children. Sunshine will need to be confined and only gradually allowed access to the rest of her new home so she can gain confidence. This process may take a lot of time. By the way, if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and want to adopt her, please leave a comment. I’ll follow up in email.

Moonlight, on the other hand, is a total snuggle fiend. She hides if left to her own devices, but if I stick her in my lap she forgets everything else and starts rubbing herself all over me. She loves to be scratched under her chin and kissed. Moonlight purrs constantly when she’s held. When she makes weight I think her behavior will have dramatically improved given her progress thus far. She’ll also need a quiet home (maybe with Sunshine?) but maybe she won’t need as much time to get comfortable.

Anyway, I’ve got knitting to do if I am going to finish the Ravelympics with the gold medal. All I have to do is finish Jen’s sock. I feel a little torn about Donald’s kilt sock. My goal was to have a sock made that I could take to another fitting. I did that, and it still needed to be altered. Is my goal met? Do I have to make it fit before I can call that one complete? I didn’t plan on making the entire pair, but am I cheating if I call this one complete when it still isn’t quite right?

Second opponent crushified

I’ve taken on my second opponent for the Ravelympics WIP Wrestling event and crushified it. The tunsian crochet cat bed has a mistake in it, but since the kittens don’t notice, I will also pretend not to notice. The colors are more accurate in the picture with Moonlight on it.

I went for the easy ones first. I figured that having fewer WIPs on the list would help me be able to see my progress. Plus, finishing 3 projects in 11 days seems much more doable than finishing 5. I am really working my way through the kilt sock right now. All I need to do is finish the fold-over part and I have completed the one sock for my goal. I am using the trinity stitch for that because all of the action happens on the backside of the work and this part has to be worked inside out. There is no translating for me to do.

I’ve also crocheted some of the Romantic Cardigan. The only one I haven’t touched is Jen’s sock. Really, all I have to do is stick it in my purse and it’ll get finished in no time.

I’m not the only person who likes that I am getting WIPs finished. Wesley always loves sleeping on my afghans.

I have a limited time with my spinning wheels as well. Sunday is the last of my spinning classes. The wheel I borrowed this week is the Ashford Joy. I LOVE this one. It’s small, so it could easily be stored in my apartment. I don’t need to reach down to start the wheel – it starts on its own when you treadle. Oh, and it has the double treadle that I really wanted to try. The only complaint I have is that the orifice (the tube that you feed the newly spun fiber through) is a little lower than I would like. That can be solved by finding a lower chair, I guess.

I bought some more fiber for my last few days with the wheel. It’s a tussah silk/merino wool blend. I’ve made just one singles so far. I am not sure if I want to ply it on itself or if I want to mix it with another fiber. Michael says I can buy a wheel when we have our class field trip to Purlesence, but I am not sure if I will be ready. It’s a big investment.

On Sunday, I mixed my mystery batt with the Waitaki that I had lying around. It’s 3-ply: 2 of the plies are Waitaki and 1 is the mystery batt.

My “nephew” Phil (Jen, send me a picture of your son) has asked that I make him a cat toy soon. He saw that I was knitting his mother a pair of socks, and figured that I could send him something to play with. He and his sisters Sam and Pookie have one I made a long time ago. They’ve shredded it by now, so I guess it’s time. I think this is the perfect time to start designing cat toys for a pattern book I’d like to write. I’ll make some of the patterns free on my blog, and some will be exclusive to the book. Wouldn’t it be cool to be a published author?

One opponent down

I’ve beaten my first opponent in the WIP Wrestling event. It was a long, imperfect battle, but I did it.

The Cat and Mouse Afghan (I call it Cat and Yarn on my Ravelry page) is now lounging on my sofa. I’ve had it in my hands for days now every time I sat down. Bit by bit the yarn disappeared, and in the end, I had an afghan. Groovy. Now, just 4 opponents remain.

I did less spinning than normal in class this week. Instead, I got to play with another tool that I thought I might want – a drum carder! Drum carders are particularly good for mixing different fibers and getting variegated roving or fiber blends. They make these things called batts. Mine looked like this (well it was one solid sheet, but I didn’t get to photograph it before the teacher showed me how to tear it into a usable form).

When the fiber was formed into a bump, it looked like this (since it’s variegated, I took pictures from different angles so you could get a better idea of what it looked like).

I’ve actually spun this fiber plus two bobbins worth of a complementary color and plied them. I will set it and take a picture. I am tempted to knit some of this one up before next class (although it does interfere with the Ravelympics projects – ugh).

I’ve also beaten an opponent in the kitten world today. Sunshine turned from being a scaredy-cat today into the most affectionate thing I’ve seen in awhile!

You can actually see the partial leg a little better in this picture. But look how happy she is! Linnea and I played with her for a good, long time last night. I think that she had such a good time playing with us that she decided we were friends after all. Sunshine got pretty helpful yesterday, too. She pottied Ling Ling for me (that is a job that I am really happy to hand over). It’s cute to see a small kitten with a mothering instinct.

Moonlight was incredibly cute last night, too. I use a thermal mug full of warm water to warm the bottles for Ling Ling and Tiki. Moonlight apparently likes warm water (very reminiscent of the way my cats drink water from the shower floor when I get out), and repeatedly went to the mug for a drink!

Wisteria has gone back to eating on her own. Last night she found eating to be too exhausting and fell asleep in her food!  It happened about 3 times before I finally got the camera. She had been wrestling the little kittens before her dinner, which is probably what wore her out. Today she got vaccinated and fawned over at the shelter. Two big days in a row – whew!

The tiniest kittens are finally getting teeth. When the first nubby little teeth come out, I add a spoonful of baby food (or in this case, regular wet food) to the bottle. Tonight both of the little ones ate wet food from my fingers. I need to tell Toni – she has their other 3 litter mates. I also saw Tiki using the litter box on her own today. It seems like they go from one stage to the next in a matter of hours. It’s kind of cool.

Hold Me

/\__/\__/\__/\________________________________________________

Beep…Beep…Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

Alas, the patient didn’t make it. The neckline may have drawn in some, but not enough to keep the thing from falling to my waist when I put it on. It’s almost like I knit a larger size than I intended. My next thing is going to be to find someone who can actually wear it. Regardless of the trouble it gave me, Blaze is still so pretty and so soft.

I am going to take a break from knitting sweaters right now and concentrate on other projects. I am still making hats for Kristy, but at a slower pace. I plan to cast on washcloths for Alicia. And I cast on Clapotis. I am using Bamboo from South West Trading Company in Sahara. It’s very soft and drapey with a little shine.

I think it’s time to update my WIP list again. I think this will be interesting:

1. Clapotis
2. Jen’s socks
3. Kilt hose
4. Blaine’s blanket
5. Tunisian crochet cat bed
6. Romantic Cardigan
7. Carisa’s afghan
8. Cat Afghan
9. A Kristy hat

Given the sheer number of blankets on my list, I think I will be finishing at least one of them up soon. I was inspired to crochet a cat motif for my Cat Afghan last night. There are only 4 more left, then I just add the finishing touches. It’s been awhile since I’ve completed a blanket, so it will be welcome. If I wanted to, I could complete the cat bed and the hat this week (but with the hat, I’ll just be casting on another right away). I seem to have a thing for having 9 projects going at a time. I wonder if I can get it down to 6 before I cast on something else. Of course, I may just be setting myself up for failure, given how much I like to start new projects.

I do have a bit of exciting news! I learned that there will be a spinning class in Mountain View starting this Sunday. It’s a long drive to be sure, but I am so looking forward to working with a wheel that I don’t mind. I have to go sign up for it now – can you believe that they are having trouble getting enough students?

/\__/\__/\__/\_ (Beep…Beep…Beep)

It’s like someone is recovering from surgery. I’m waiting. I can practically hear the heart monitor with its rhythmic beep…beep…beep.

Last night I was the surgeon. The only seaming that needs to be done in this pattern is a small seam in the underarm on each side. So here’s the problem I mentioned in a previous post:

In the pattern at the end of the section for the body it says:

“Work 16 rows of Cable Pattern until work measures 13 [13.5, 14, 14.5, 15, 15.5] inches. IMPORTANT: Take note of which pattern round you end on, and write it down! The sleeves will have to end on the same pattern round.

Ok, I did that.

Again, at the end of the sleeve section it reads:

“IMPORTANT: Make sure you end with the same patt round the body ended with. This is much more important than the sleeves being the right length, as it will ensure that the cable patt flows smoothly into the yoke of the sweater. “

I did that, too. The pattern implies you can finish anywhere in the 16 round repeat and it should work out. Well, it didn’t. I finished on round 16 of the pattern repeat. I counted the stitches properly and the top part of the sleeve did join seamlessly with the body of the sweater. I didn’t suspect anything was wrong at that point.

When I looked at the area that needed to be joined, though, I found a huge problem.

You see, there should be matching knits and purls at the top and bottom of this seam; however, this is not the case. If you look from right to left (because that is how knitting and crocheting work, right to left), on the top it looks like: kkppppkkpppp. On the bottom it reads: pppkkppppkk.

Put them on top of one another:

kkppppkkpppp
pppkkppppkkp

It doesn’t work out! It’s like DNA with mismatched nucleotide bases. Instead of matching up A’s with T’s and C’s with G’s, you have A’s trying to get with G’s and T’s trying to bond with C’s! It’s anarchy! An unstable DNA structure. KABOOM!

I did my best to sew it up despite this. I used to be a type A knitter. If there was a mistake I woud rip that sucker out a million times to get it just right. I wasn’t above going in with scissors and chopping out the offending portion and reconstructing the area with a yarn needle and a length of yarn. While that did help me become proficinent in repairing knitting, it didn’t help me complete projects in a timely manner.

Even after the fudged sewing job, there were more problems. In this picture, you can see that the neckline is bigger than the body of the sweater.

I tried it on. Can you guess how I felt about it?

Once the surgical wound was closed, I had to get the patient to recovery. I washed it in preparation for blocking.

I placed the sweater/patient on the table and scrunched up the neckline, hoping that it would draw in a bit. All I can do now is wait. /\__/\__/\__/\_

Defying expectations

I’ve learned a great deal about human behavior this week. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with the trial I am hearing. If it were, I couldn’t talk about it. The good thing about the trial is that we were told it will probably end much sooner than originally expected. Then, I will have my knitting and kitten life back!

So, yes, the human behavior. I’ve learned that many people have preconceived notions that they cannot let go of very easily. It’s not that they are trying to be judgmental or anything, it’s just that they have been told or have seen that the world is one way, and if they see something outside of that, people freak out a little. There are two particular preconceived notions that affected me this week.

Remember the knitter/juror? Well, she falls into the typical age range that people expect knitters to conform to. She has grandchildren and she loves to knit for them. Many of the other people we have met in the last week and some change have come up to her and said, “Oh, it’s nice that you are knitting. You must have been doing it a long time.” Because of my world experience, I never tell people what they must have been doing – I know that my lifestyle is not typical of a person my age, so why on earth would I make assumptions about others? The knitter/juror kindly replies to those who ask, “Oh, no, I only started knitting after my mother died. It was very recently.” The other people seem surprised, but it still fits their worldview that she knits. When the other people approach me, they ask, “Oh, did you just learn to knit?” They do not notice that I have a very complex project in my lap, or that I knit without looking. I very kindly explain to them, “Oh no, I have more than 20 years of yarncraft experience under my belt. Why, I’ve even started spinning my own yarn.” This does not fit into the worldview that the others expect. They still seem confused when they walk away. The knitter/juror and I don’t mind – she asks me for knitting advice when we have breaks from our duties. She is so kind – she said to me that “thank-you” is not a big enough word for what she feels I have helped her with. The knitter/juror says that I am truly an expert. Still, the others aren’t so sure. They continue to ask me questions when they see me working. I have answered these questions in great detail, and I think some of them now believe that what I say is true. While I don’t fit into the mold they expect, the others are learning to accept the truth.

This leads me to the next preconceived notion that people have. A juror asked me, “You seem to have a lot of time on your hands to make such lovely projects. Do you work?” I told her that, yes, I do work with the kittens. I work very hard in fact, especially when one of them is sick or scared. “No,” she says, “Do you have a real job?” I tell her again “Yes, I do have a real job. I volunteer at the shelter and take care of kittens when I get home.”  ”But you don’t get paid, right?” She asks. “No.” “So you don’t work.” “I do.” We are at an impasse here. The woman who exchanged these ideas with me was not saying what she did in a manner that felt particularly judgemental. It’s just that her worldview is like many people’s – if you are not at home raising children, then you must be working at a paid job. Well, I do not fit into either category.

Just to be fair, I held that worldview until I moved to San Francisco only 4 years ago. If you would have asked me 10 years ago where I expected to be today, I would have told you that I would be finishing vet school. Of course, sometimes life throws things at you that you didn’t expect. While I was in college I noticed a very peculiar inability in myself to keep up with the others. I needed so much sleep. As time passed, I learned I had several endocrine disorders and gluten intolerance. I am miserable with a regular job. Even part-time jobs wipe me out – I have trouble keeping a regular schedule. Despite this inconvenience, I kept myself gainfully employed until my husband finished his schooling and found a job here. Since his job kept a roof over our heads and food on the table, I was free to pull my weight in other ways. I needed something I could do on my own schedule, one that I could do at home when I wasn’t well enough to leave the house. I now tell people, “My husband earns the cash, I earn the karma.” The job I do is one that many people do not want to do, but no one is willing to pay to have it done either. The job still needs to be done. It took me a long time to accept my situation. I still keep trying to devise ways of at least making myself neutral to my husband’s income. I’d like to make a great deal of money so I can buy a house. If I am honest with myself, I know that going back to work will wreck me. Shoot, I have to nap every day after jury duty. Is that what I really want out of life? Work, then sleep, then work the next morning with no enjoyment of life in between? As hard as it was to do this, I’ve come to accept that just because I am not paid, it does not mean that I am not valuable. Maybe it means I am priceless. Still, it is tough on the old self-esteem to be informed that I do not have a real job and that I have more time on my hands than I ought. Even when the other person doesn’t mean to hurt me.

But, anyway, I do have some successes to report. I’ve finished a washcloth that I have given to the kind knitter/juror. It was going to be for me, but she had never used a handmade washcloth before and I couldn’t let her miss out. She’s going to make a million of them when she sees how great they are. Also, Milkshake made weight this week! All we have to do is get rid of the ringworm spots and he is going out for adoption! I have to take a really nice photo and write a description for the website. None of the pictures I have taken so far have done him justice.

Well, I’m off to knit some more before I go to bed. Goodnight.

A Finished Object!

I have my first FO since starting the blog! The purple socks that I took to Florida with me are now finished.

  

If you zoom in closely to the second picture, you can see that I tried a different bind-off idea. I had particular trouble making a loose enough bind-off for this sock, so I went to the knit store and bought tan elastic thread. I used that for my bind off row, and now I am having no trouble with getting them on. The only problem I forsee with using this method consistently is that it’s hard to match the elastic thread with the sock yarn. You either need deliberate contrast or a close match. I think this method might work well if I were to hand dye some yarn. I could toss the thread in with it, and shazibby – I have matching thread!

In a moment of weakness, I may have tried casting on Jen’s socks (from the Berroco Comfort yarn) last night. I wanted to finish one more object before starting another. Oh, I know - what I cast on was just the swatch. Swatches don’t count as new projects. I have swatches from several projects that I have not yet gotten to lying around. Yeah, that’s it. It’s a swatch, and no one can tell me otherwise.