Excitement Arrives in the Mail

I guess I'm turning into a twice a month blogger. That's not very inspiring, is it? I have been knitting quite a bit though. But before I talk about that, I have to brag that my approved master's thesis arrived in the mail last week. I'll admit that since I turned it in way back in July that I figured that I would have heard from someone on my committee by now if there were significant problems with it, so I wasn't that surprised. I had a few typos (no shock there, huh, loyal readers:) I just have to fix those and I'm pretty much done. I am really proud of myself and can't really believe that I did it, especially when I think about how I still feel like I don't have much free time, even now with it done.

Poor Russ had oral surgery on Friday. Other than feeling sorry for him, however, it was a very nice day for me. I took the day off work, even though his appoirntment wasn't until 1:45 in the afternoon, and we didn't have to leave until 1:00. After he was taken back to have a "screw" placed in his jaw, I headed over to a Creative Pursuits knitting shop in downtown Bakersfield, a few blocks away. I hardly ever go there since there is another knitting shop in Southwest Bakerfield that is more convenient. I had a great time there, and bought some Araucania yarn in a pretty multi-colored orange to knit pumpkins with. I had two hours to kill before going back to pick Russ up, so it was a nice leisurely afternoon. And to top it off, Russ's experience wasn't too bad, except for the fact that it cost us $5,000, most of which our insurance doesn't cover. Well, at least Russ's parents have the satisfaction of knowing that they saved money when he was a kid by taking him to a dental college rather than a real dentist. Our dentist thinks that that was the original cause..a cavity was filled improperly when he was a kid and it's been a continuing expense to us for the last twenty years with bridges, etc. This should take care of it for good now. Oh..and yes I am being petty about Russ's parents. They were not poor, just cheap.

Mmm! I better say something to make me sound a little less judgemental than my last paragrah did. I am excited that I'm starting to get some Christmas presents finished up. I'm almost finished with my neice's pink cotton sweater, and I'm also knitting a bunch of tiny socks to go with the keychain sock blocker from the Loopey Ewe that I'm knitting for my sister. I figure that it will be fun for her kids to play with all the little socks when they are in church or someplace where they have to sit quietly.

My Just Desserts

I've been a little distracted from knitting lately. I had a post a couple of weeks ago with pictures of my kids holding puppies. My sister-in-law asked me if we'd given in on the "puppy thing." I thought, "Of course not, we're happy with our animal situation as it is. No way!" Well, famous last words. Russ went and picked up "Gidget" last Thursday, and we are all officially in love with her, even Rowdy. We were a little nervous about how he would react, but he is very gentle with her and seems quite content to have his daughter chew on his ears and chase his tail.

She is already pretty much house trained and doesn't complain at night when we "crate" her. But she is not without some flaws. Rowdy used to absolutely love yarn. He just couldn't control himeself. If yarn was anywhere around, he'd grab it and run with it. I once found some beautiful angora yarn that I had foolishly left at "dog" level, strewn all around the backyarn. Gidget seems to have the same inclination. Today I saw her heading toward my knitting bag, and yes, I grabbed the camera before I grabbed her. I sacrificed a nice Brittany Birch double point for this cute pic.

I think I'm going to take Wool Winder's advice and knit a couple ittle pumpkins before I go back to socks. Oh! I also plan to knit the pumpkin bag pattern that Merit told me about.

Socks and Groundhog Day

You would think that in two weeks I would have at least one pair of socks to show off, but I have been stuck knitting the same sock over and over again. I feel like I'm in the movie Groundhog Day where Bill Murray wakes up to the same day over and over. I frogged my peppermint mocha sock last week because it was way too big. Then I decided to use a completely different pattern. Two weeks later and I can't even remember all of the patterns I've tried to knit with that yarn. I keep getting only so far and then I frog. I probably need to just give it a rest. I bought Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks because I've seen so many pretty socks that people have knit from there. It is a neat book, but I just can't seem to settle on a pattern I like. I'm knitting the ribbed basketweave right now, but I'm still not quite satisfied.

I was excited to receive my "sheep" socks blockers from the Loopy Ewe last week though. I think they're a work of art. They're made of solid oak unlike my heart socks blockers that I bought from another source that only used oak laminate.


It's still plenty warm in my neck of the woods, but I can feel fall coming. My son is playing football and had his first game today. He's in eighth grade and in previous years, I have bribed him (last year it was a 32 dollar book about the making of The Lord of the Ring.) to stick with soccer, which he loves, and skip the football. This year, it was nothing doing. I dislike football for a number of reasons, but the main one is that I don't like a sport where injury is so common place. But Kai absolutely loves it. He's so excited this evening to be watching the Nebraska/USC Game on TV since it's in Lincoln, and they have shown some of the locations on campus that we visited this summer.



I have big plans to knit some felted pumpkins this fall. I never finished this one that I started last fall. The pattern is from Knitty, but I also plan to knit some of Tracy's She created some darling mini pumkins.

Am I Old?

I started teaching high school when I was twenty-three, after graduating college two years before. I wasn't one of those "change the world" kind of new teachers, but I did think that since I was so young I would be able to really connect with the kids. One of my first memories was of talking to my students about how the band "Metalichi" (yes, I thought Metalicca was Metalichi) sang some songs that were based on classic literature. The kids laughed so hard when they figured out what band I was talking about. I tell my students about that story now and they still think it's funny. The point of bringing up this story is that I learned quite early that to kids you're always a lot older than you think you are.

I had one of those experience today. I had a relaxing day hiding from the infernal heat, knitting on my River Rapid Socks from Sockbug. I was using my Claudia Handpainted Peppermint Mocha yarn and was very proud of finishing a sock in one day. So I showed newly-finished sock and my green Aran Sandal sock that I finished last week to my daughter and her friend. "Mom, you're really getting into the old lady colors, aren't you?" she says. What!? She was particularly cruel about the green yarn, asking if it was acrylic and did I plan to crochet an afghan with the rest of the yarn. The nerve! I went to her usually more kind brother, and he backed her up. I told them that I thought both socks looked very "hip." They informed me that people who like orange, green, and purple together also think they're young and hip. Maybe I AM getting old...acrylic yarn IS so much cheaper than wool. (LOL)

These are my two yarn defamers. They both look so sweet and sensitive, but don't be fooled. Underneath, they are both heartless "sock make-fun-of-ers." Someday they will have cold feet, and their mother will just laugh and tell them to go to K-mart.