Stress Reaction

My hubby and the youngest are at the movies seeing Wall-E, and the daughter is at work, so the dogs and I are spending a lazy Sunday afternoon chillin'. With this abundance of quiet time, I found myself motivated to break out the macro lens and take some photos.

I’m still in the groove with the cross-stitch, though having finished one project, I was reminded of a drawback to this noble art. It’s expensive to frame these babies!! Ouch!

Still, I love the stitching.

And the macro.

Work on 32-count linen with silk requires (for me) strong light and granny glasses. But the macro lens gives the illusion that I am stitching on a feed sack.

Not so, my friends. This is delicate work indeed.

Sick people scare me.

Today was one of those days when reality reared back and slapped me upside the head and asked me “What in the hell do you think you are doing?" This guy came in with this funky heart condition which has required getting it "shocked back into rhythm” in the past, and oh, by the way, “my heart feels kind of funny”, and all of a sudden my heart is feeling kind of funny and I’m desperately longing for a run-of-the-mill sinus infection or allergy sufferer.

It’s always a bit of a shock to be reminded of how little you know verses how much there is to know. It’s a good thing, but humbling non-the-less.

On top of that, I’ve lost the knitting bug. My sister, a severe allergy sufferer, used to sit on the couch and snuffle and snort and there would be these piles of tissues strewn around her like snowdrifts.

I feel like that. I woke up a week ago with a clear head and drifts of yarn around me and absolutely no desire to knit.

Luckily, previous stitching bugs have infected me in the past, and they have cute patterns too.

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Via Katie. Here's what to do if you want to play along:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name. (kid version: favorite animal?)

Top Left: Traveling Vine in Seacoast Hand Painted
Top Right: Charade in Vesper
Bottom Left: Creeping Vines in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock
Bottom Right: Lenore in Socks That Rock

Not to be confused with a foot race, three legged race, road race. In fact, I think I would be hard pushed to break a sweat with this race.

But I have committed to not starting another pair of socks until at least two of these four are finished and ready to adorn someone's feet.

Check out Ravelry (or Flickr) for the specs.

Lot's of time on Ravelry here lately. Anyone besides me just luuuuurve Ravelry?

I alluded to the fact about a month ago that I am suspicious that Goldilocks and I are twins separated at birth. Her issue may be with porridge and chairs and beds, and mine with socks, but otherwise we are simpatico.

As an example:

The facts:

The sock yarn: STR in Scottish Highlands.
The needles: Addi Turbos
The pattern: RPM.
The skills: adequate.

The conclusion: UGLY!

Everything that could have gone wrong with this sock has gone wrong. The stripes are wonky (again; this is the second time I have tried to knit this skein; didn’t like the stripping the first time either), the short-row heel marginal (though, in my own defense, it is my first wrap-and-turn short-row heel; got to say: not a fan) the ribbing too tight and the leg too loose. Somewhere along the line I ended up with several breaks in the yarn along one side of the ball. Only thing I can figure is I stuffed it into my knitting bag on top of a partially open pair of scissors, because it was unbroken when I wound it from the skein.

But because this is about the tenth (no exaggeration here folks, though I will spare you the photographic proof, as it would likely prove too painful for both of us) attempt at knitting a decent pair of socks, I persevered. Shouldn’t have, I know, but sometimes (as in always) we have to learn from our own mistakes.

It’s not all bad Chez Stressreaction. I have put this monstrosity aside (I can hear your sighs of relief) and have found a pattern/yarn combo that seems to be working, and am over half way through the second sock. So maybe the curse has been lifted, or the spell broken, or the Karmic debt paid. Soon I should have something pretty to show you.

In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for me. The ones you don’t need for your own knitting that is.

This little clip was made to show my Dad (who I don't think quite believed me) how our little dog walks. The vet says that there is something wrong with the way his tail attaches to his spine. At any rate, it doesn't seem to give him any discomfort, and we get endless amusement out of it.

The choice of music was my daughters. Obviously we are very bad people!

Alternately titled: Winter Wonderland My A$$ (Thanks Terrisa)!

Courtesy of the first winter ice storm of the 2007/2008 season here in Oklahoma, I am going on the fourth day of my weekend. Perfect conditions for some spinning. In fact, when the electricity was out for six hours yesterday, I felt almost like a pioneer woman spinning by the light of my (ahem*gas*ahem) fireplace.

Ambience aside, I was glad when the power came back on. Of hardy stock I am not.

Besides, only modern, digital technology could bring you these pretty pictures!

Enjoy!

So I have had this whole Goldilocks thing going on with my knitting. I’ve cast on about five socks and it was always something. This one was too big, and this one was too small, and this one was too scratchy, and I began to think that something was amiss. And not just with my knitting.

I’ve been noticing a general dissatisfaction with life as a whole. Maybe it’s the holidays, with the whole mustshop, mustshop, mustshop mantra pounding at my head, or the concern I have that my father told me recently that he just doesn’t "have the spirit” this year. (Ummm, at the risk of making someone jump off a building because I am saying it again: Mom died this year, Dad)!

But I know, deep down, that it’s more than that.

I need a purpose. Not in the physical sense (raising a family and healing the sick meet that need just fine). But in the spiritual sense. My greatest joy in my job is when I connect with someone on an emotional level. When they get that I get where they are coming from. That I have been there and understand in a way that has nothing to do with a textbook.

I'm exploring options on that front, but in the mean time, I’m thinking this sock looks just right!

Collinette Jitterbug in Parrot

Lured by wine and cheese, I went to my very first ever knitting meet up Tuesday. Literally the first time I have sat and knit in a room full of other knitters.

This is huge for me.

I’m not a meet up kind of person. In fact, I have often been struck by the irony of having chosen a career in which I must verbally and/or physically interact with 20+ people a day. Left to my own devices, I would probably be in real danger of becoming a shut in. Ordering both my food and various necessities online. But that’s for another day.

So I went (dragging my loquacious non-knitting daughter with me), and it was fun.

I worked on Lenore by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. (STR Club pattern. The only link I could find was in Ravelry).

What a great pattern! * And the colors are to dye for (gawd, I crack myself up)!

Turns out, I’m fairly challenged by knitting and talking at the same time. I would find myself knitting faster and faster as the conversation swirled around me, and before I knew it I was searching for missing yarn overs and puzzling over stitches that did not belong. If my fellow knitters noticed that I spent more time tinking than knitting, they were too kind to comment.

Then again, it could have been the wine.

*But I do have a confession. After two years of membership in the STR club, this is only the second time I found both the yarn and the pattern appealing enough to cast on immediately. The remainder of the club yarn remains in skeins and only one of the patterns knit (in an alternate color). So if you are in lust of an elusive club membership, scoot on over and you might just get lucky!

So Amanda (still missing you by the way) over on Flickr is all about the futab, and once I ascertained the more benign definition of the acronym, I thought it would be a great way to introduce you to my final pair of Soctoberfest 2007 socks. (They were indeed finished in October. Getting them up on the blog just took a little longer).

I love, love, love this pair of socks, which leaves me at a loss to explain why it took me almost two years to get them off the needles. They just kept getting side lined by other projects, swap socks and life in general. Now we are complete! Sigh….