Wednesday, November 21, 2007

A little bit mental, not so much rock-n-roll

Is it, perhaps, the imminent kickoff of the frenetic holiday season that is wearing on me today? Maybe it's the weather, though at a sunny 63 degrees F, that seems unlikely.

There are the usual UFOs. I now have three necked sweaters (that's three sweaters that have necks, not a throng of sweaters with three necks each... that would indicate a very large error in pattern reading) and one with most of a sleeve. My green beret is still where I left it, whimpering in its bag. I have a sock that's gone rogue on me; I cannot conceive of how the foot part got so large, when the leg part is normal to skinny. That will have to either be ripped out or Quinn will have to develop more toes and a large hump on the one side.

I have my crap together for Thanksgiving. I have been assigned the blessing (ordination has its drawbacks, like people assign you the blessing at Thanksgiving and you have to come up with something to say... thank you Elizabeth Strong and the UUA for providing inspiration) and delivery of "something delicious". I tried to pass the children off as delicious blessings, but the mother-in-law is a crafty one and saw right through that. So, instead, I will be bestowing Outrageous Brownies (thank you Ina Garten) and some apple crisp for the delicious part. Since I have my crap together - and items that are easy to whip out this evening and park in the fridge - we're meeting a friend at the park for some play and to deliver candy corn - which is evidently scarce this time of year - and some eucalyptus salve for her hacking preschooler.

The only thing left, then, is that Thanksgiving, upon us in less than 24 hours, marks the beginning of collective psychosis, in which people line up outside retailers at midnight or 4 a.m. to start their lunatic shopping. And I'm not sure why I'm feeling tense about this. It won't be me out there. I will be rising early to pick up my food co-op order, not to enter retail hell. There will be coffee. I will come away with 15 lbs of rolled oats.

All will be right with the world.

And, in case anyone needs a reminder in this area, make a cup of tea, take up your wooly work, turn up your volume and click here.

A delicious and blessed Thanksgiving holiday to all.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Did I drop dead?

Nope. I know there are a number of people who would be surprised to hear this, since I've been in some sort of cyber-hibernation but, as it turns out, I am alive and knittin'! And, of course, geekin'.

There are several reasons for my absence. One is that my laptop died. Actually, it died twice. I have named it Lazarus. Evidently, it didn't take... or there's one resurrection per customer. Hard to say. I'm not a scholar, you know.

The other major issue is that we ripped out the kitchen. I felt very poetic because we tore down the object of my oppression on Bastille Day. That's July 14th. I would now post "before and after" pictures, but I'm waiting for "after" to occur. Oh, and also, the "before" pictures are locked in the stubbornly unresponsive Lazarus. Meanwhile, we have a "functional" kitchen and I've almost moved entirely back in, which is creating some chaos on my newly expanded counter space, since there are some unfinished areas of cabinet where I can't so much put in the "stuff".

There are other WIPs... I have a trio of cabled sweaters for the wees that are only waiting for necks and sleeves. I think they would be moving faster if I worked on them. Actually, that's the plan: I'm going to put them (the children, not the sweaters) to bed early tonight and work on necks. Then, I'll concentrate on the sleeves over the rest of the week.

My green beret with the cabled band has been heard sniffling in a bag of other wooly goodies. I think it's lonely. Haven't studies shown that wool fails to thrive when deprived of human contact? I'll work on that after the sleeves. Or maybe before. You know, just to quiet the moaning.

There have been socks. And pictures of socks. See above for the explanation regarding the absence of pictures. I would take new ones but, as socks are wont to do, many have disappeared. I'm assuming they simply migrated north in the warm weather and will reappear now that it has cooled off.

Do not speak to me of delusions.