Missing Fingers

Here's the deal. Tomorrow morning hubby will be having surgery. It is not an emergency type procedure, he has been having problems with his shoulder for the last couple of years and finally it has gotten to the point where he took the initiative to correct the problem. If you know hubby then you know it has to be serious when he does this. In the last eleven years I can count on one hand with missing fingers how many times he has gone to the doctor.

Nonetheless, he is going to have surgery. This is something that frightens me. Suffice to say, I may not be posting all that much for the next few days or so.

For now I will leave you with this.


Did you notice that there are three different projects here? Okay, maybe not three on the needles, but there will be and maybe even four, who knows. I have enough needles to have about thirteen gazillion projects going at a time, but who I am kidding, I am afraid to use them. The socks on the right are being made with baby cashmere, the soft blue is the beginnings of my first lace project, and the yarn in the back is going to be socks (they are going to be my travel/mindless knitting).

The one thing I look forward to about the surgery is that it will be free knitting time for me.

Huh

I finally finished the everlasting Mata Hari Socks. I initially I found the pattern through this site a while back, I really liked the simplicity of Kathy's finished socks and knew that eventually I would like to make a pair. But if you look at these finished socks and these finished socks and then look at this

I don't think they look all that similar. Here is a better look at the stitch pattern.

Yeah, it still doesn't look like their FO pictures. The funny thing is when I was knitting this, I forgot what their socks looked like and even though my socks don't look like theirs, I realized that they sorta look like the ones that are pictured in the chart. Or do they, am I hallucinating? All in all I enjoyed the new challenge of knitting on toothpicks US 0's.

ETA: I just realized why my FO is not like the others. When I was looking up the pattern, I failed to actually read the entire post at Craftoholic's blog. If I would have paid attention, I would have realized the chart was for another pair of socks and the instructions for the Mata Hari's were in the post. I am not sure what the name of the charted pattern socks are so I am going to call mine "Not the Mata Hari's" I am such a dork!

Who Am I Calling Old?

Do you remember when you thought that no matter what happened to you, you could just go on and it would be okay? When you did not have to "recuperate" after the party or injury?

When I was in college, I remember those all night parties where I could drink, sleep for about 45 minutes, wake up, and do it again. Not that I did that all that often, but I could when I wanted to. I also remember spraining my ankle so bad during volleyball practice that the doctor told me to stay off of it for three to four weeks and after three days, I taped it up and was good to go. It wasn't until years later that the ankle started to give me problems, I went to the orthopedist, got the cortisone shots, and was good. Haven't had a problem since.

How I long for those days. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think that I am old or anything like that, infact, I am even considered young amongst many of my friends and neighbors (early 30's if you were wondering). But I do, I do long for the days when I thought that nothing could stand in the way of what I needed or should I say wanted to do.

Why is this on my mind? Several reasons. One being my back. I have never had to do much in terms of pain management before, infact, I really don't like to take medicine unless it is absolutely necessary. Now don't get me wrong, it is not as though I am not willing to take meds, but if I don't need it then why.

So the fact that I have been taking meds for my back is a big thing for me. I have only taken two of the three prescribed, the anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxer. It seemed to have been working too. By Friday evening, I decided that would stop taking the muscle relaxer because I was feeling better. Saturday I took nothing and was fine, the only thing was my back would hurt when I woke up in the morning, but after a while, I would be fine. So Sunday rolls around, I thought that I could play ball (against hubby's wishes) realizing that I would probably be a little stiff after, but I thought I would be fine just like all those times before.

Boy was I wrong. I am not as young as I used to be and if I am feeling this way now, then what is it going to be like later on in life. I am going to refrain from all physical activity for two weeks and I am going to see where that gets me. It is a going to be hard and little frustrating but I will do it. I have to I just told all of the blogosphere I would.

The only good thing about this is that I have to pretty much take it easy, which for me means I get to knit. I am going to get to knit a lot more than normal. I told myself after I finished the toe socks that I wouldn't knit anything else until these were done.


At the rate I am going, hopefully I will cast on for something else by tomorrow.

I Heart You

I have pretty much been laid up for the last couple of days with my back. I went to the doctor yesterday hoping for some physical therapy or something just to get me functional. I had to see a new doctor since mine is currently on maternity leave.

When I was there I told her how I strained the muscle playing ball on Saturday, but really did a doozy when I was buying cases of water and sports drinks. I also explained how I had taken some ibuprofen but when that didn't work I decided that I would just drink because I figured alcohol was a muscle relaxer and enough of it in my system would help me out. The doctor just looked at me, laughed, and said nice try. You've gotta love a doctor with a sense of humor.

Needless to say, she prescribed three different meds an anti-inflammatory, pain killers, and a muscle relaxer. Let me just say to my new best friend the muscle relaxer, I *heart* you! My back is feeling sooooooo much better.

On the knitting front I finished the toe socks.

I did want to make them longer, but I ran out of yarn and didn't have anymore of the pink left. I am going to try and get you the pattern soon. But with all of the meds in my system right now, I am just lucky I could get this post complete and sounding somewhat coherent.

And in case you were wondering, I may just wear these with some flip-flops.

BTW, thanks Sachi for the html (I think that's what it's called)

Ouch

What a weekend. I know, it's Wednesday and I am talking about the past weekend. Well, it was a busy one. Friday B graduated from pre-school and is now on summer vacation. The ceremony was cute. Each of the classes performed songs and let me tell you, some of them were hilarious. Saturday was K's birthday and we had the final round of our softball tournament. We ended up having to play not one, but two games in the heat. It was 95 degrees when we started our first game at 1 PM.

Talk about guilt. Hubby and I felt so guilty about having to play on K's day that I think we may have over-compensated. We took him to the Magic Kingdom the week before. The day before to see "waseeing caws." Then took him shopping to choose the gift of choice. Take a wild guess where he got his gift from. If you guessed here, then you would be correct. Though I have to admit, he probably wouldn't have noticed if we just told him his day was another day. And then Sunday, well you know, it was father's day. Every year I let hubby choose what he wants to do for the day. This year was an exception though. This is the first father's day since my grandfather passed and my grandmother really wanted everyone over at her house to honor him one last time. I have to say that it was a really nice evening with all of the aunts, uncles, cousins, and nephew's. He did have a special breakfast made for him, and the kids actually let him sleep in. We did exactly what he wanted until we went to my grandmother's, absolutely nothing.

Monday, I thought things were finally winding down, so I went to the gym in the morning. When I got back hubby suggested we go to the lake. It was exactly what we needed, except for the fact that I got a massive headache when we were there, but the lake was great, not busy at all. Also on Saturday I slightly pulled my back muscle when I was playing ball, no biggie, but today I went shopping and had purchased a few cases of water and sports drinks. When I was loading and/or unloading, I strained the muscle even more. Now I can barely walk, lay down, stand, or do anything with out pain. I so feel for people who have chronic back pain. I would never wish this on my worst enemy.

Needless to say, there are not any photos. The toe socks are done, I just have to weave the ends in on one of the socks and then take photos. Hopefully within two days, I will be able to bend over enough to put socks on my feet. And then cross my fingers a pattern for you within a week of that.

BTW, we won our softball tournament.

Happy Dad's Day!

Happy father's day to all of the dads out there.

To my hubby, thanks for being such a great dad. B & K look up to you in so many ways and I can see how you inspire them to be the best they can.

To my dad, thank you for everything you have done, without you I would not be who I am today.

Happy K Day!

Six years ago today I found out that I was pregnant with my first son. We were starting our family.

Three years ago today I gave birth to my youngest son. Our family is now complete.

Happy Birthday, K!
We love you so much!

Stripes

What do you do when you know you are not going to have enough of one color yarn to finish a pair of socks? If you're Michelle, then you make stripes. That part of the reasoning behind the stripes in the toe socks. The pink was left over from another project that I did and although there is almost one full skein of it, I want to make really long toe socks. Not that long socks are needed at this time of year. Afterall, June gloom seems to be gone and it's going to get to be about ten-billion degrees this summer. Here is what I have so far.

I had to frog the one on the right. I don't know what I was thinking. The sock was really big and by big I mean wide, I made a few adjustments where I joined the toes together and now they are so much better. To ensure that the socks will be even, I am attempting to work them both at the same time, but not on two circs or anything. After I finish turning the heel on the right one, I will work the one on the left to the same point and then just do the one color change at a time thing.

Oh, BTW look what I got in the mail the other day.

They are knit notes from Jennifer who is known as Major Knitter. Back in March she hosted March Madness. She is one dedicated person. She knit all of the knit notes herself and then even sent them to each of the people who contributed. It was a pleasant surprise when I opened my mailbox. Thank you Jennifer.

Attack of the Ants

Yesterday morning as we were getting ready to go to B's end of the school year picnic I hear B screaming "MOM, WE HAVE A SERIOUS SITUATION." Knowing my son can occasionally have a flair for the dramatics, I ask him what's the matter.

His reply to me was, "WE HAVE AN ARMY OF ANTS, THEY ARE GOING TO EAT ALL OF MY TOYS."

So 45 minutes and a gallon of ant spray later we finally went to the picnic.

The ant problem has become so bad in my house this year that last night I woke up screaming that I was being attacked by an army of ants. Hubby laughed when he realized what was happening.

The good thing is that no toys were harmed.

Almost Summer

Today is the last regular day of school for B. Wednesday he has a school picnic and then of Friday he graduates. My goodness...where has all of the time gone. I know it is not as though he is graduating from college, but still. He is moving on to the next big thing in his life, elementary school.

When fall comes around it will be a transition stage for me as well. B will be in school five days per week and K will be in for two days. For the first time in a long while, I will have two mornings to myself every week. I don't know if I should jump for joy or cry. I'll probably do both.

Anyway with the end of the school year, I finally have the gifts for the teachers boxed. The only thing left is to make the cards. But look at what the teachers will see when they open their boxes.



I found the soap at Bath & Body. It was the last day of their sale so you know I felt like I scored. Afterall, I was going to buy the soap anyway, at least I got it on sale.

As far as the knitting front. When I was a little girl my mom had a bunch of these socks that had toes. I don't know what the proper name is, but I guess you could call them toe mits or something like that. Well now my youngest sister has a little obsession with them. I was thinking of her when I started to cast on and attempt to figure out how to come up with something like them. This is what I have come up with so far.


When she came over this weekend I showed her what I was making and look what she happened to have with her at the time:

A little creepy. It's as though she knew.

**ETA: I read this over at Rabbitch's blog. Things do get pretty out of hand. Especially when they expect everyone to feel the same. I actually like my son's teachers and had no problem giving in addition to what I had planned, but if you read my comment, there were a couple of parents in the group that seemed as though they were put on the spot and agreed to the gift just to get out of an awkward situation.

Superstition

I have been knitting. Really, I have. I have been trying to keep it on the DL (down low) for reasons that may seem, well, superstitious. See, I don't want to jinx anything. You know you start talking about something with the hopes of X happening and then because you spoke publicly about X, it doesn't happen, your heart is broken, and then I would have to go hide in a hole.

This got me thinking. Growing up I never considered myself very superstitious, afterall, I broke about a dozen of those little pocket mirrors when I was about 9. The bad luck would still be following me. I think I have been pretty lucky so far.

I mean when I was in college I remember one of the girls on our volleyball team who would not under any circumstances cut her nails on game day or any other things like that. There was another girl on the team who wouldn't wash her "game" socks. Eeew! I thought they were nuts. We all know those people who freak at the sight of a black cat, who must throw salt over their shoulder if it is spilled, who won't walk under a ladder, etc.

But then I got to thinking. I am superstitious. I don't freak at the sight of black cats, etc. I still play softball so some of my superstition has to do with this. Now don't get me wrong I will cut my nails and do wash my clothes/uniforms between games. But if I am not hitting like I should be, I really wash my uniform. I will wash it at least 2 or more times between games to get the bad mojo out. If I wear a particular hat/visor that does not have the good mojo, then I will no longer wear it to my games.

A lot of my superstitiousness (is that a word?) comes from not messing with good fortune types of things. For example, when we were purchasing our house, I did not tell anyone in fear that we would not get the house if I "boasted" about it too much. When I was pregnant with my kids, I did not tell anyone that I was pregnant until pretty far along. If they asked me point blank are you pregnant, I wouldn't lie, but I wouldn't bring it up unless I had to. I didn't want to jinx it.

Now, I know that this may have me hiding in a hole, but here is what I have been working on for the last few weeks.


With all this talk it gets me thinking. What types of things do you do or not do? How superstitious are you?

Now let me go get my Stevie Wonder CD.

Don't Drink the Water

There has been another baby born here in these suburbs of Southern California. You may ask what does this have to do with knitting. My response to that would be nothing, this has nothing to do with knitting, but I think there may be something in the water around these parts, or at least on our street in particular and it has a y chromosome in it.

There are approximately 34 houses on our street. We are the original owners of our home and have been here for about 9 years. In the time that we have been here there have been babies born. No biggie right? Right. The only thing is that since we have been here of all the babies that have been born to families living on this street have been boys. Okay, well not all, though you may be wondering how many are boys, fourteen are. And how many girls you may ask? Two. That's right there have only been two girls that have been born on the street since we have lived here. Now don't get me wrong there are girls that live on our block, just not many who were born here. The great thing is that all of the kids do get along great and play together wonderfully.

There is one family who has four boys. Me and a couple (most) of my neighbors have two. The family who welcomed the new little bundle of joy. Well, that is baby boy number three for them. And this is what I am going to give them to celebrate.


A diaper cake.