goodbye stupid sweater, yay for warm heads

Woooo!
Tonight I finshed TWO of my albatrosses




the fleece lining that you can't see, is the part that was taking me forever to get to/ attempt.


and yes, i am wide awake.

nausea, insomnia

Saturday night I could not sleep. Toss. Turn. Ache. Repeat.

At 1030am yesterday, I found sleep, filled with nightmares? until 330pm.

I have been awake ever since.

I made cinnamon rolls at six am. At 7am we were off to Sprout's physical therapy, and by 9am she was at school

I made some calls about housing, and my budget. The news was favorable-ish.

There are two houses we've peeked in the windows of that have us pretty excited. House A is our favorite.. great yard, same school district, same distance to all of Sprout and I's docs etc. House B is across the street from historic sites and has a wheelchair ramp already built to it. A nice one.

I made calls on both, and now I have an appointment in one hour and twenty five minutes to see House A.

I'm way. way. way t0o excited.

I bet SProut's chair won't fit in the bathroom or something.

I'm hoping, that maybe, just once.... things come together for us.

Wish us luck.

Mango Madness

I managed to take a nap today, that encompassed most of the afternoon. Sprout was busy with her video games, and the pup, the hottie film stud and I crashed until around two. Then it was up, at 'em, showering and heading out to pee (ok, only one member of the household peed outside).

We went out today and drove by a couple more houses. I have found two that I am really interested in, perhaps I will post some photos later.. then dinner from Jimmy Johns. Sprout came home to take a bath and HFS and I went to the grocery mart. Organic green tea with ginger rocks my world.

Ive been suffering from ridiculously dry skin lately on my legs, and lamenting the fact that Buffy from LUSH is a little out of my price range right now. Tonight at HyVee I found a "Lotion Bar" in the organics section. This bar is manufactured by a company from Ralston (the next town over- YAY for buying local) called "It's all about bees". We bought some of their honey as well.

This lotion bar says it has "concentrated moisturizing with natural oils, butters and beeswax for your roughest, driest skin, including hands, feet, elbows and knees". You use it similar to one of LUSH's massage bars, rubbing the solid bar across your dry skin. For best results you then massage it into your skin allowing extra time for it to absorb.

My skin feels amazing and smells yummy. This could be love.

After we got all settled in for tonight's Torchwood season premier, I sat down with my blankie and my knitting buddy Elvis. I finished the right sleeve of the demon mango baby sweater, and now I'm down to the left sleeve and the finishing whatnots. I can't wait for this nightmare to be over.

The Rise of Adolf Knitler: The crochet-fascists are back.

by Steven Wells


You know what really annoys Philadelphians? Journalists who get neighborhood names wrong. Write that the corner of 23rd and Analretentive is in Whogivesafuck, and you’ll get 100 letters and phone calls sneeringly pointing out that Analretentive stops just south of Getafuckinglife Avenue, which means the corner you’re talking about is actually in Stupidyokelwithnothingbettertodo, “you fucking idiot” (no matter how politely they start the phone call, geographical pedants can never resist swearing right at the end.)

But giving these local-geography fascists a good run for their money in the hysterical overreaction stakes are Philadelphia’s legions of extremely sensitive and appallingly badly dressed knit-Nazis. Boy do they get pissed if you write rude things about them.

I should stress here that knit-Nazis are in no way like real Nazis (apart from being really touchy and big fans of the films of Leni Riefenstahl). I use the term because it’s an astute parody of the way the crafts most associated with brain-dead, soul-destroying pre-feminist housewifery—knitting, beading, stitching and crocheting—have been re-packaged and successfully sold to smugster sheep as radical, alternative and edgy.

I have two books on my desk right now, both pushing the strange idea that twiddling about with bits of wool is totally punk rock. And they’re just the tip of a huge knitted iceberg. There are entire sections containing metric shit-tons of these knit-Nazi manuals in every book barn in America.

First up there’s Alter Nation. There’s a rad-lookin’, crazy blue-haired rebel chick on the cover alongside a boast that it contains “25+ DIY fashion projects.” Be still my punky heart.

Then there’s Anticraft, subtitled “Knitting, beading and stitching for the slightly sinister.” One can only assume they’re using “slightly” here to mean “not at all.” And that “anti” is a misspelling of “auntie.”

Seriously, if you called housework antihousework, would that make it cool? If you anticleaned the kitchen after antichanging the kitty litter before antipicking your screaming brats up from school and antidropping them off at soccer practice before rushing home and nearly anti-overdosing on antidepressants so you can face clearing up the vomit your shit-faced alcoholic of an antihusband has puked all over the bathroom (while still finding time to knit an amusingly decadent antitoilet-roll cover) does that mean your lifestyle is somehow edgier and more interesting than that of your poor burnt-out-at-40, dead-by-50 great grandmother?

Put it this way, young goths: Vlad the Impaler didn’t crotchet his own ear-flapped bobble hats. And neither should you. If you need a hobby, take up spitting.


Does anyone else feel insulted?
QUICK!! Let me run to Hot Topic and purchase something! Would that make me more punk?
We have the CHOICE to craft, and incorporating a DIY aesthetic into things is a good thing.

A poster on a board I'm on said something that resonated my feelings on 'choice'. Just because I like to do some of the things my gramma did, doesn't mean I want her life, her salary or her marriage.

As Jawbreaker once sang...
"You're not punk and I'm telling everyone!
Save your breath I never was one
You don't know, what I'm all about..."

"sphincter-like"

while knitting the most heinous baby sweater ever...
and watching tonight's colbert report..

i snort-choked on my green-ginger tea when when Debra Dickerson of motherjones.com referred to Bill Clinton and his recent campaigning as "sphincter-like" I think Colber nearly choked himself.

*guffaw*

he and I have both just added an "adjective" to our vocabularies.

(pardon any knitting-rage-verbage that may follow)

I’m making this stupid baby sweater for my aunt to give as a gift at a baby shower… tomorrow. She asked me to make it… last Thursday, neglecting to tell me when she needed it by.. until last Saturday when she complained about my progress.

It looks cute on the demo baby (on the pattern sheet), but sadly this has got to be the most poorly written (at least as far as my brain is willing to translate things) ever.

I made some minor mods (like knitting it in the round). So far, while knitting it, I have come up with ways to write a new pattern entirely, (the only things they have in common are “baby” “sweater” and “size six needles”) to make a sweater I am totally stoked about. Unfortunately, due to the timeline I’ve been given, I kind of have to finish this one as is, and as written.

I am down to the sleeves and “finishing”.

Did I mention that I am not happy with how it is turning out, and feel that someone needs to get their butt over here right about… NOW.. with a six month old baby for me to try it out on?

ps. this placket is retarded. or I am. or quite possibly both.

while this project isn’t one i’ve had in the works for a very long period of time.. its definitely one I feel myself running the other direction from finishing.

I want to FROG FROG FROG, or, throw it into the big blue bin of WIPs and UFOs and run in the other direction.

Possibly eat a brownie. Or a pan of them.

Have any tips for trying to make yourself finish a project you’re really not “feeling” ?

Last night while cooking dinner, Bosley ran off with a broccoli stalk. I was fairly certain it wasn't going to hurt him, but thought I'd look it up anyway.

Apparently, broccoli is actually *good* for dogs, much like people. Yay for fending off puppy cancer.

FS says its great, he'll live longer. Or maybe it was more like "oh great"

And yes, those are *three* tubs of yarn and fiber behind him, and no, that's not nearly the full extent of my stash.

So I am sitting in bed, unable to sleep… what do I do? Knit!

Tonight I managed to program the stupid universal remote, so I kicked on to the 1am Xfiles on scifi as I am working on my mango infant hoodie, due for a shower next week.

Next thing I know, there is an episode dealing with Demon Babies..

Burn some sage over the finished product before gifting it?

Is it first tuesday (knitting knight) yet?

I've been posting some minor details of my many half-finished projects over on Ravelry . Tomorrow I am going to take some pictures of my half assed finished goods and finish loading my current WIPs. I also am going to be trying to get myself down to 2-3 WIPs at any given time.

Friend me over there if you want : rockwafflestitch

Since my illness/ diagnosis' last spring I've had serious trouble keeping track of anything, or keeping focused on anything for any period of time. Oh, and that random feeling drunk then passing the fuck out thing. It makes it hard/ awkward to leave the house... as I never know when I'm going to have an attack... Add that to my heart and my back... (and the fact that I lost my health insurance effective January 1, 2008) things have been booming awesome around here lately.

Anyway, about my yarn and WIPs... once I get a handle on my projects and stash... I intend to utilize some of my excess 'space bags' and smoosh my yarn and fiber down until I move to some place with additional storage.

On that note... I have begun looking for a new place to live. Specifically a 3 bedroom ranch style home with a place to put a garden, doorways/ halls wide enough for Cait's chair, and a bathroom she can maneuver about in. Oh, and in the Papillion-Lavista school district.

Wish me luck on that one.