On a brighter note...

Man, what a downer that last post was, huh? Not that I am any more clear on what the hell I'm doing today, but I guess I've got my sense of humor about it all back. I had to rip back on my sock yesterday (big pout). I messed up the heel, but it's looking good now. I really, really wish I had my Gateway computer so I could get some freaking photos uploaded. This computer blows.

I'm thinking about starting (yes, I know, it's only the illusion of progression - bite me) the Leavened Raglan from Interweave's Fall 2007. It looks all soft and cuddly. I wonder if I could make a v-neck? I'm a little gun-shy after my Billy-Bad Ass feelings about my sister's bag and the beat down that came right at the heels of that! I like the Placed Cable and Tangled Yoke sweaters too, but the raglan reminds of the dream sweater I hunted down my senior year of high school. So it's that one I want to jump on.

Mmmm, knitting may be my way of avoiding my life, but at least it involves gifts for friends and family (well, when I finish something)! :)

Has it really been 10 days?

Well, time flies, as they say. Though I don't know how much fun I've been having. My LYS Socks are still on the needles, as is my sister's satchel, little Jonathon's blanket that I may end up giving to him when he leaves for college, all the same UFO's (unfinished objects) looking at me from the corner.

I think my knitting is mirroring my life. I feel I have stopped moving forward. Or I am waking up again and realizing things like just having clean clothes for the kids and making the choice to get out of bed each day is no longer enough. And strangely (and sadly), this awakening is making me not want to get out of bed each day. I want to bury my head and just be happy with the status quo DAMMIT. I am safe in that space, with no one expecting anything from me and praising me for what little I have been able to accomplish. The part of me that so knows all that is a cop out is being over thrown by the "I'm the victim", the "I'm just too tired" and the "Good enough sometimes is" parts of me that are so much louder than the grown up, responsible me.

And so I hide in my knitting without ever really finishing anything. I start a million things, because starting something feels like forward movement. It is not, it is all smoke and mirrors. It just turns into the ball of such-and-such in the knitting corner reminding me that I'm going to have to get off my ass and do something. Hike up my skirt, suck it up, cowboy up - however you want to say it, I'm at the crossroads and I'm scared of either direction. You know you're fucked when even the road often taken frightens you.

LYS Sock KAL with a side of High School Musical 2

So, if they had fixed my computer the first go around I would have pictures of all the fun I've been having this evening, but that is another story all together...


Anyway, I received today in the mail the first Eleganza Yarns (my LYS) shipment of the Sock Club. So exciting words can not even express. The yarn is beautiful and so soft. Very pretty colorway, "Mendocino", in a 100% Merino Superwash Wool. The yarns for this KAL are hand dyed by Diane Kelly of FireSong Fibers (no website for her). The yarns aren't available for the general public for a whole year, so just those involved in the knit-a-long get to play with it. I feel so Paris Hilton! ;)

My daughter is spending the night at a friends house to watch HSM2, so it was just me and the boy tonight. Oh, don't get me wrong, we had to watch the thing too, but I didn't have to sit through miss thing swooning of Zac or whoever. Though my son can throw down on the dance floor, he was shaking a tail feather for sure. So he shimmied and I wound my ball of pretty pretty yarn. And stuffed my face with all kinds of bad crap for the mother/son bonding. I don't get to hang out with just one or the other very often, so I really look forward to it. Especially after getting so stressed with the two of them at each others throats all the time (I did mention that school starts very shortly, yes??).

So a nice relaxing evening, being silly with my baby boy and playing with yummy yarn. Schweet!

The one with the happy dance

School starts in 11 days. Insert picture of me going all Lord of the Dance and you'll have an idea of how happy I am that this is finally happening. Working from home is a blessing, I am not complaining. I just feel that our upstairs neighbors will benefit from the lack of yelling, crying and plain old dramatics of this summer. Granted a good portion of this list was done by me (hee hee) but you know what I'm saying!

I am meeting with EJ's teacher next week. I'm praying it's a better year for him this year. Far too many details to go into, but he and I and his kindergarten teacher didn't really, er, click. And he deserves to have someone who believes in him. I am not the kind of mother who feels their child does no wrong nor am I the kind of parent who lets the school raise their children. And I feel that when a parent reaches out to a teacher to come up with a game plan for a child/student then that teacher better bring it because that is supposed to be a winning combination. Argh... feeling that old mama tiger coming out. Ahhh, anyway, new year, new beginning!

I am off to watch the finale of So You Think You Can Dance and finish MS' satchel!

Mmmmm, more humble pie please!!

Ok, so remember in the last post how I was talking smack about how great a knitter I am becoming??? Well, I should have known that was just tempting the knitting gods... I am an ass. The little satchel that I was supposed to present my sister with today turned into a TWO FOOT WIDE monstrosity. Yes, I know I am yelling. For the love of all that is holy, it was two freaking feet across. What the hell was I thinking. I just cast on all happy and stupid and continued to be so blissfully impressed with my mad skillz that I got blindsided by my own ignorance!! Ok, Shannon, sure you want to cast on that many stitches when it started out as your sons messenger bag that you felted... felted Shannon, as in stuffed in the wash and watched it shrink. Dear freaking Lord. Cotton doesn't do felting... ya think??

My daughter is an amazing little munchkin, she looked at it and said that looks like a pillow. A pillow, shear freaking genius wrapped in an 8yr old body! So my sister is getting a cute little satchel (already all cast on) and a kick ass matching pillow! That's what I meant to do from the beginning... yeah, that's the ticket! ;)

Where I commence tooting my own horn...

So I'm working on my sister's satchel/purse thing and I'm taking elements from the organic cotton grocery bag I made for my other sister (going forward they will be known as M(iddle)S(ister) and L(ittle)S(ister), MS and LS, that'll work) and elements from my son's messenger bag and a stitch pattern that I think is cool. And I'm sitting there knitting away and thinking to myself, when the hell did I get so confident in my knitting that I can incorporate different patterns... all together... at the same time??? I mean really? I'm so impressed with myself, mostly because no one else in the house seems to care! It has nothing to do with cheerleading or football, hence it does not register on their scopes. Speaking of, off to football practice, knit bag in hand! :)

First Post

So, this is my first post. And of course I'm not set up where I'm at to add fun pictures or anything organized like that...

I'm completely looking forward to playing with this and being just as geeky about knitting as I've been warned that I am. Plus, I can't pass up an opportunity to share my opinion where I can just choose not to read anybody's response. With my two munchkins running around, that's not something I can enjoy on a daily basis in the real world!

So, now all I gotta do is get some pictures of the Dwelling Place blankets that are in various stages of finishing, pictures of the great number of projects I've got going on top of all that and any pictures of the kraziness in between!

Happy, happy, joy, joy