Mommy: Did you eat some chips?

the Boy: Yes, and I’m makin’ them into poop right now.

Halloween Festivities:

We took him to the Zoo Boo at Como. It was about 10 billion people’s worth of fun. Actually, it wasn’t that bad and the thing was set up pretty well. We had a good time and both the grammas came, too. the Boy chose his Dragon costume. He had a duck and a dragon and Thomas the Train to choose from.

Here he is trying to huff and puff and blow this house down:

Which one of these is not like the others?:

Dragon? Meet Dragon. :

Hey what’s going on out there?:

“Mommy, did you cut your hand on a dog?” (referring to my now mostly healed dog bitten hands)

Knitting update:

Yesterday, Monday, was a super fun day for me. I went to Chris’s place to spend a lovely, peaceful afternoon knitting. She knits like the wind!! I finished the heel and got an inch done on the cuff, while she knitted 12 or 13 baby bibs (slight exaggeration). Muchly inspired me to practice up on Continental as soon as I finish Dickinson Pullover. The kitties were so beautiful in person and it was quite nice to see them in their natural habitat. Chaos didn’t appreciate the Aretha Franklin and Rolling Stones ringtones on my cell. I got to see the Mayhem/Goldfish fun, too. Mayhem reminded me so much of my beautiful kitty, Babu. Really made me miss having a cat that likes hanging out with us. We have a cat, he just never wants to hang out upstairs with us. Anyhoo, I was a very bad blogger and didn’t bring my camera or anything.

Dickinson Pullover : Front, back and now one sleeve finished. Second sleeve, sewing up, and neckline to do. This project has definitely reached the “when will it all be over stage?” I’ve got about 1.5 inches done on the second sleeve.

Jungle Juggle Socks: Heel turned on first sock. Half way up the cuff. Going slow, but the yarn is a total dream to knit with.

Forest Plains: No progress to report. I still need to skein up the formerly kinky yarn.

Sorry for the crappy knitting pics. It’s evening here, but if I’d waited for the good daylight, I’d never get anything posted.

Knitting night: Held at Cafe Bene in St. Paul and I had a blast. We discussed a group yarn crawl, saying how fun it would be for 10 of us to descend on several different stores just to see their faces. It was even funnier when Theresa suggested we all dress as zombies for the event. So, you know, if you see zombies invading your local yarn store, don’t be afraid. It’s only us. Actually, be afraid. After all, it’s us.

Losing the use of half of my right hand turns out to be quite the inconvenience. and I don’t just mean loss of knitting time. I mean things like I have a hard time pulling up my pants and buttoning them, let alone wrassling my kid into his clothes. Seriously, you want funny? Come on over and watch me try to put socks on a struggling three year old. Not an easy task on the best of days, but lately it’s nearly reduced both of us to tears. Of frustration and pain for me, just plain frustration for him. And that’s the easy stuff. Close your eyes, I’m about to commit sins of TMI…It turns out you can’t just switch to your non-dominant hand for such delicate personal tasks as wiping your butt, and expect all to go well. Settle down…I’m not going into details. And just to top it all off, I’ve developed an allergic rash to the anti-biotic I’m taking. I’m red and bumpy around my collarbone and the waist band of my pants. I itch all over and I mean ALL over. Or all under, if you will. My girl parts are maddeningly itchy all the time. It’s not a yeast infection, I thought of that, it’s the rash. The rash is in my girl parts and I’m going further insane from the itching. Not the scratching…cuz I try to do very little of that, what with my lady like nature and all. No, the itching. It seems to be unrelievable by any sort of ointment. I finally called the doctor today, and they said to stop taking the anti-biotic and to try taking over the counter Claritin for the itching. It’s like Benedryl, but non-drowsy. I just took one, so hopefully by the time you read this the itching will be nothing but a bad memory. The Docs say the itching may last several more days. Please cross your fingers that the Claritin works, or my husband might make me go live in the garage. And no one would blame him.

We took the Boy to a Fire Department Open House this weekend and it was lots of fun. We got to ride in a fire truck, go up in the lift bucket, spray the fire hose, eat free hot dogs, and get a goodie bag filled with fire department swag. He received a kid sized fireman’s hat, a t-shirt, a frisbee, along with many stickers and magnets. It was a very fun day for him and us. Here are pics of him in his t-shirt and hat. He wore the t-shirt to bed, and we had to peel it off him the next evening for washing, but as of this morning it’s back on him.

On Sunday we were able to attend a baby shower and stop off at a pumpkin place. the Boy wanted a pumpkin and this place had those and much more. Here are a bunch of pics from there. We had lots and lots of fun!

Thats a pit of dried corn he’s jumping into. It was about 10 inches deep and very fun to roll around and play in.

All in all a very nice weekend. Except for the itching.

I was so upset and couldn’t stop crying after it happened, my husband came to get me. I couldn’t have driven even without the hysterics. I have a call in to the dog’s owner to talk about what happened, and I’ll check to make sure their shots are all up to date, but I’m pretty sure they are.

I have no idea how long it will be before I can knit again. Just this morning I was thinking, I never have anything to blog about besides feeling sad…What was I thinking!?! Here’s a couple pics of my poor lobster claw hands. See how I’ll never be able to knit like this?

So anyhow, the Rupert thing has had me up and down and back up a bit, then way down again, for more than a week now. She was doing really good for a few days there, but now she’s not doing good again. For the last 2-3 days she hasn’t been able to get up on her own, and even when I help her…she can’t seem to stay up. And it freaks her out. The other night, I found her whimpering in a corner, soaking wet with pee, and the entire foyer floor was covered in it. I think she may have tried to stand up, couldn’t, got freaked out, peed on herself, then drug herself around on the floor. By the time I got to her, she was just a mess. The remedy was not comforting to her either. My husband helped me get her in the tub and I got her washed off, but she hates being picked up, restrained, bathed…all of the above and we were doing it to her. By the time I got her out and dried off, she was shaking and upset, and so was I. She seemed a little better the next morning, but not much. She has good moments, but they’re getting fewer and farther between.

I’ve got a message in to our vet. I plan to tell him how she’s been since last week when we saw him and she got the new pain pills, how she was better, and is now bad again…and ask him what other things there may be to try for her. I have the feeling, based on our last visit, that there’s not much else to give her. It’s kind of a matter of how much longer I can stand to see her like this. If he says there’s nothing else medically we can try, I’ll make an appointment to have her euthanized on Friday morning. We’re going camping that day, so I can just try to relax and deal with my feelings all weekend…then come home to an empty house on Sunday. *sigh*

I’m in the process of adjusting my medication and that has the potential to help, but it’s also difficult for me to transition through. Lowering the dose of one of my meds always gives me terrible dizzy spells and my mind feels out of control. And raising the other one which tends to agitate me. *shaking head* fucking depression. I hate this. I’m a week into it, and its getting better, but it’s been a bad week.

So yeah, not a great week.

After the roaring campfire turned to coals, we put a couple racks of ribs on. mmmmm, I just love ribs for dinner when we’re camping. We let the Boy set his own bedtime on camping trips. Whenever he’s sleepy enough, he just lets us know and we help him get snuggled into his sleeping bag. This time the Rock Star had purchased a new pad for my sleeping bag. It’s about twice as thick as the thermarest I’ve been using. It was super comfy but Ididn’t sleep all that well, cuz the meds I left behind were my sleeping pills. The next night I slept like a rock, though.

Boy Pics:

I knit every possible moment. I absolutely love knitting by firelight. I have a very nice headlamp called a Petzl. It works great!! I always bring a supply of charged up rechargeable batteries and between that and the firelight, and even a bit of help from the nearly full moon, I can see just fine for knitting.

I worked on the Dickenson Pullover the entire weekend. I got about 12 inches of the back done. It’s turning out great!! But. There’s always a but. My gauge is way off, so the sweater is knitting up small. I’m actually ok with that. It’s big and baggy on the model, and I think I’ll like it closer to form fitting. This is my first serious cable project. At first I had a hard time figuring out how to keep track of all the different pattern repeats, but once I figured it out it was easy. The work is immensely satisfying!

Here’s what I have so far:

That color isn’t really accurate, but it was the nicest picture. Here’s one of the main cable section:

Here’s me eating breakfast, notice the knitting bag within reach:

1 tiny baby
2 tiny knitted booties

Fold baby into booties. Don’t shake or stir. Preheat your camera flash. Take pictures until the other coffee shop patrons start shooting you dirty looks. Serve warm. Makes 1 serving, 0 carbs, 0 calories.

This is a high smile, high squeee treat. Very rich, but you can never get enough.

The flight to Cali went very well. the Boy is a fantastic little traveler. Here he is enjoying the view before take off:

We landed in San Jose and rented a car to drive to Arroyo Grande, where the parents live. His dad is pretty nice and we like seeing him, but his step-mom is horrible and it makes everthing very tense. the Boy is actually a pretty well behaved kid, but between her absolute refusal to move any valuable, fragile objects out of the way and her horrible barking, snapping, fucked up little dogs, the Boy was fairly miserable. It was hard on us to keep telling him no, no, no…but he listened and was doing ok. At one point, THB (the heinous bitch) actually yelled at my l’il guy to not touch her things. His face kind of crumpled up and he said, “But all my things are at home…” and ran to me crying. While I comforted him, she proceeded to lecture my husband. He pushed back asking if she was actually criticizing our parenting, and maybe we should just go stay in a motel. His father stepped in to say he really, really wanted us to be there and told the stepmother she was out of line. After I got the Boy settled down, one of the fucking little shelties chased him down the hall, trying to bite his feet and I scooped him up and we got out of there for the day. We had a fun day out of the house with Grampa, leaving her to stew with her own yucky self. That was the pattern for the rest of the visit. As long as we were away from her, we had a good time. The day to leave finally came and we high tailed it outta there.

We stopped in the town of Arroyo Grande. Mommy needed a bit of yarn therapy after all that. Yarnology filled the bill nicely. I had a nice knit chat with some ladies there. Much yarn was molested and these were the ones who followed me home:

Manos del Uruguay Worsted:

Manos del Uruguay Cotton Stria:

Berocco Plush (destined to be a cute bunny):

Claudia Handpainted Sock Yarn:

A historical note. I’ve never really had any sort of respectable stash. I generally buy yarn with a specific project in mind, make it, and buy some more yarn, and so on. These purchases constitute the beginning of what could be considered an actual Stash. I purchased yarn because it felt nice and I liked the colors and I have absolutely no idea what I’ll do with it, besides fondle. I’m now a knitter with stash. I like how it feels…

This trip also marks the first time I’ve had more than one project on the needles. I’ve decided to give up my knitting monogamy and cast on for what I feel like, when I feel like it. This trip I worked on my LFFCS/BOBA and got this far:

I also cast on Bellatrix in Purple Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome, got to the gusset, frogged it and started over. I got past the heel this time, but have decided I don’t like this yarn for this pattern so it’s on it’s way to the frog pond, too. I want a very poisonous colored yarn for this pattern. Something in Acid green or purple and black. The pattern is fun and easy, but stretchy as hell. I have my eye on some Wollmeise Poison Nr. 5 or maybe Scout’s Swag Death Eater. Here’s the pic that’s making me drool. It’s Bellatrix in Wollmeise Poison Nr. 5 by Missy:

credit

I also cast on for Fetzensocks from one of my Yahoo sock knitting groups. Pumpkin by Lisa Souza is absolutely luscious!!
. I love this pattern and I love this yarn.

So that was the first leg of the trip. Many more adventures and more yarn to come. Stay tuned for a story about a fantastic yarn store in San Francisco!

Vacation was really great and there are many stories. or Yarns, if you prefer. Everyone loves a good yarn, especially if it’s about yarn. There are some stories about yarn, and about my family, and about a beautiful wedding and seeing/meeting friends from far away. In a bit of time.

Here’s some natural beauty in the meantime.