attack of the ball winder

I was reading one of the comms I'm in, and I'm sharing this as my defense
and I'm looking at you moderngypsy

it seems every time I touch a ballwinder.. or, at least *her* ballwinder (and the only one i've ever touched)

this happens to me

apparently I'm not the only one.

stitching.. and bitching..

In knitting news, I am still swimming in fiber. I can't remember if I actually, technically signed up for the Tour de Fleece. In fact, I'm pretty sure I meant to, and didn't. However, in spirit, I still plan to loosely participate and paw my way through my intended pile. Maybe in the next few days I will get a chance to post pix of the amazing fiber stash I've amassed in the last... month. I think I'm sitting on about twenty pounds. Oh my.

Provided my back starts cooperating.

I'm making decent progress on my trekking sock, I'm into the calf increases, and pleased to realize I'm using a handy geologic slope formula to compute my increases. Rise over run indeed. I'm hoping to be at the knee by Thursday's stitch and bitch, I refuse to call it "sit and knit". Stupid people and their stupid attempts at hogging copyrights on things that they don't have copywritten.

Of course, on the 4th (hope you had a good one) I had to rip out ~ six inches of sock. That's approximately sixty rows... of precious calf. I thought by putting my increases on the back, I would create a 'seam'. What I created was a pouch, ideal for a heel growing out of my calf, or a place to squirrel away change. Basically, I find neither of those options to be suitable. Additionally, it was turning my rows into chevrons in the back of my sock. I was not amused.. so frog... frog... frog... and now I'm back at it, spacing my increases about, and hoping to get caught back up. I frogged it back to the bold yellow stripe near the shin there. Ideally I would like to have this puppy finished in about twelve days. This picture was taken about three inches before I decided the frogging was necessary. I should have taken one of the pouch before I killed it off.



I used a figure 8 toe up cast on, that is slightly goobered, on my trekker. We like to refer to it affectionately as a resevoir tip. Thursday we are having a class on the figure 8 toe up, so I think whether I've finished sock #1 or not, I am going to go ahead and cast on #2, just to hopefully get a nicer start on it.

When I finish these pups up... my next knitting project is most likely going to be the ballet sweater from the July Magnits

Knitty has a few patterns calling my name as well. I am all about this "extremities" issue. Some of those mitts, example- the knucks, have the potential to be some serious stash busters.

I also just bought a skein of my friend PippiKneeSocks's hand dyed sock yarn in a faboo colourway called "Lilly Pond" I plan on eventually turning that into a pair of knee highs for my eleven year old. Pippi, as a matter of fact, was just published in the new issue of Knitty regarding her amazing hand spun, hand coiled yarns.

So that, for now, is my knitting news. I plan on taking the trekker out into the wild tomorrow. Which will probably be my last effort to get outdoors for a few days, highs will reach the upper 90s and are to be into the low 100s (plus our nasty 90% humidity) for the next week or so. Ugh, I can't wait to get back to the mountains.

stabby stab!

In other news, J got his first puncture wound last night after stepping on one of my size two, steel, double pointed needles.

It was driven in approximately two inches.. and at a fairly good angle. I admit, I lied to him and told him it wasn't in very far, and that it must be the angle giving him trouble to remove it. But truthfully, it was far enough that he couldn't pull it out. In fact, he had to brace himeself while I did.

When my first two, firm yet polite tugs yielded no fruit (or pinkish silver dpn), I nearly thought we should maybe leave it in, and hit the ER. I was concerned that at that depth, maybe the needle plugging that hole could be a good thing. He wanted it out, and the third time it came (completely unwillingly).

On the bad side (BAD AMANDA!) I was filled with a mixture of concern and laughter. If it had been my foot, pictures would have been taken before withdrawal of the needle.

Not a lot of blood, but a pretty good sized hole. I slapped some bag balm on it and gave him a clean cotton hiking (arch supported) sock. (Notice how that keeps in the theme with my trekking yarn and my trek-a-long, knit-a-long sock). I told him to soak it in epsom salts. Today he is supposed to be investigating getting a tetnus shot.

After a bit of the pain subsided, he began to freak out, worried that he had wrecked my sock- he thought it was a needle that had been carrying stitches, but it was the fifth needle that had been poking out of the ball of trekking.

One more adventure in my trek-a-long, knit-a-long sock.

Use this story as a warning. I reminded him to remember this, the next time he annoyed me and I threatened to stab him with one of my double pointed sticks of doom.

that darn cat

This week has been a whirlwind of medical stuff, with doc appointments literally every day. Wednesday even had two. I had an ultrasound of my kidneys this morning. Whee. Back to the doc on Tuesday, then again a week from Wednesday and another the next day. That's all I have, that I know of, for now.

This morning we were up wicked early to get Elvis to the vet on time. The kitties didn't want me to get any sleep last night- they were standing on me, staring at me, demanding to know why their dishes were empty. Sad state of affairs when the trio is subject to the diet restrictions of the little patient. As soon as Elvis was crated this morning, Alex and Spooky were ready to dine.

As for my little man, he and his inflated ear were delivered to Dr. Tracy's office at 7:20 this morning. He should be in surgery now, with them calling me in the 1300-1400 range for an update, its fairly likely he will need to spend the night. Cait is terribly worried about him, and I guess I am too. No one wants to hear things like 'infectious' and 'potentially gangrenous' in relation to their baby, (even if the baby is cat-shaped).

Cait is off on a day camp field trip to the Rose theatre to see a production of 101 Dalmations, followed by a picnic. She wanted me to leave her at the vet's this morning with Elvis. eek.

Fireworks tonight for Papillion Days, should be a good time. I love me some fireworks. We had plans of coffee and hitting Simon Joyner and Ted Stevens at an art opening downtown, but its just too much after such a long day. We should be at Sunday coffee for sure.

From my apartment, to the vet, to the day camp and downtown to Creighton Med Center... all by 0810 and with a nearly two year old in tow.

I am so ready for a nap, just need to stop fretting about the darn cat.

home again

Elvis is home, repaired, and looking beat down. His ear is shaved, he has one of those cone dealies and last but not least.. hot pink stitches.
My punk li'l babe.



He is sore, tired.. and pissed.