I was going for a patriotic red blue and gold look, but sadly my red polish is clumpy – so it may not make the cut. 

In honor of the patriotic season the hubby kids and I ventured out last night to a fireworks show near the house. The nice thing about fireworks once a year is that you kind of forget how awesome they are in between. You forget that some of them are loud enough that you can feel the boom, you forget the noise as it echoes back like distant thunder. You forget the lights raining over you that little fear that something might land on you.  You only remember the ones that boom and then sizzle into so many tiny light flowers when you see them again and as short as the show seems, in the end it almost seems worth the traffic and the people and the crazy that is going to any event in the city with a crowd anxiety ridden husband, a teenager and one shy boy. 

In knitting news I have reached heel point on a new pair of socks, and since the last 8 pairs I have ended up ripping since I just didn’t like them – this pair is at least encouraging. I have discovered through the help of Ravelry that I have high arches and perhaps need to modify sock patterns if I expect them to fit properly – so my hope is that this pair will finally fit properly. I figured I would use an inexpensive yarn just in case this whole experiment with modification didn’t work, then I wouldn’t feel like I had to rip it out and start over, so I am using some lion brand sock ease from stash, the only problem is I truly like this yarn…for the price point it is as nice as some yarns I have spent twice as much for. If it holds up to wear I will be truly impressed.  I just wish it came in solids as well.

No sock pictures today though, it is simply a yellowish sock in plain jane ribbed top stockinette down. If it all fits well it may merit its own post simply because posting about it while it is still in my memory will at least give me a reference point for future pairs.

So anyway – these are the fable mitts, I finished them in a rush as they were originally intended for someone else, but in an evil twist of fate I got to keep them. The knitting is just to distract you, I really started typing to tell you all how fricking grumpy I am.

My dog is making me insane becasue the oversize dipshit is terrified of fireworks, and every kid in my neighborhood apparently has an unlimited firework fund. I find myself thinking very bad things about these children, and worse things about their parents. The problem is when I was a kid nothing made me happier than a bag of fireworks – that delightful sense of wrongness when you lit the fuse and held it to the last minute and threw it…or when you stuffed a barbies head with black cats and twisted all the fuses together to light as one…anyway FWIW I still have all my fingers. Clearly something has addled my brain between childhood and today cause I would ban the damn things. In the meantime my addled st. bernard golden mix is living under my skirts, and is fricking terrified to go outside and do his business. His back legs have acquired a nervous shake and he is vocalizing….peiple my dog licks, he does not vocalize. Also the whine is very wimpy and the one thing my dog has going for him is that he can look tough (look being the key word)
In closing – fricking brats…get off my lawn – also I would never wish that you lose a finger, but if you buzzed on badly enough to give up fireworks…..

The family and I decided to play tourist today. Sometime you forget just how pretty it can be here.
Anyway, my poor sock in progress went with me and who can blame it for wanting to see the scenery?

1. butt crack sweat is the worst kind of sweat.

2. boob sweat is the second worst.

3. no matter how hard you try, you will miss a critical spot with the sunscreen.

4. I do not really understand golf.  Also golfers think that is kind of odd.

5. The part after the golf stuff where you ride around on the carts with the cute caddies who take all your marketing stuff to your car is just fine

 6. If I were single I would totally play golf.  Did I mention the cute caddies?

So I am sitting on my front porch watching the grass grow. Really. Actually I am watching the sprinklers, listening to the birds and enjoying the evening cool as it rolls in. The hubby and kids are just getting back from a walk….and I am just enjoying the calm.

I have been handed a bouquet of weeds by one kid, and a dirty foot bandaid from the other. Ah the joys of motherhood.

Work is wonderful again. Crazy busy, but oddly far less stressful than it had become. You never want someone to have so much power over you that they can make you miserable, and yet you find that stuck day to day with someone it wears down your resistance to miserable. Folks my resistance to miserable is pretty darn strong. I hope to never have to exercise my anti miserable that strongly again.

Miserable does have some good side effects though – I adopted a finish it now mentality with my crafting and didn’t take up too many long projects, so I do at least have some finished stuff. 
This was an impuls buy at a knitted peace – a free pattern with yarn purchase type thing I had to have. Basically a weekend knit. I plan to knit this one again….bigger. And maybe from wool instead of cotton, the cotton was darn hard on my hands, but worth it.

Hope you all are enjoying summer as much as I am

In other news – the family is all still alive, I am still knitting, things are still crazy and I somehow wonder if there are really lights at the end of the tunnel or if it is a horrific joke played by unknown miscreants with flashlights. I am beginning to suspect the latter, but in case of the former the blog reserves the right to come back to life.

1. Made for Anna.

My first foray into felted clogs.  Ignored yarn requirements, bought two skeins of clog color and one of sole color.  Made it work by holding clog color and sole color together for inner sole of clog. Purple and black.

2. Made for me.

Paid attention to yarn requirement, apparently forgot how to count though. Compensated by picking up or dropping stitches randomly throughout to keep the stitch count right. Clogs still turned out super cute.

3. Made for Debbie. This pair was practically perfect except that I used a different kind of yarn. On my prior escapades I used Cascade 220 or Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride. For this pair I heard that the brown sheep naturespun  felted a lot faster – as I do my felting in a front loader this was ultra appealing. What I did not expect is that it would felt totally differently than the other yarns.  I consider this the wonkiest looking pair ever and there is not picture as I think they were felted at about two minutes before they were gifted.  They are also the warmest thickest pair I have made- so the recipient was still quite happy.

4. Made for Beth – again no picture – again, finished at the last absolute possible minute – there may be a pattern here but I refuse to acknowledge it. Lavender with purple soles – I used Hobby Lobby I Love this wool, and it was a slower start felting, but once it decided to felt – it felted.

5. Made for Kacey – and since these live with me and are frequently spotted in the wild (she wears them to school..yeah I am that mom, the one who lets her kid wear their slippers to school…) but still – no picture. These were a complete hybrid knit – all or the other purple and black leftovers held together in an amazing yarn conservation sytem effectively using all kinds of leftovers and still becoming felted clogs.

6. Made for Frankie -

who is graduating high school, and is nice to my freshman kid. The idea struck and I raided the stash using one skein of Brown Sheep Naturspun in bulky weight to knit all four soles! Beware clog knitters – this left ONLY enough to sew the sole together, not enough to do the cuff or attach the second sole, so for that I went back to pair No. 3 and used some of the purple to do the job. The blue was a skein of Lion Wool I had around thanks to my inability to resist a clearance sale.  The best part is these have a little racing stripe around the sole, which can not be considered sporty, since this is a slipper, but sure is cute.

So there it is – my most frequently knit pattern. Maybe I will learn to start more than two days before gifting is required

The Cathedral Rose Afghan.

At a total of 84″ from side to side there is a deceptively HUGE amount of crochet here.

Entirely Red Heart Super Saver <1. It had to be washable. HAD to be.  2. If I made it of anything else I would have had to put it in a safe deposit box – the yardage in this thing is….intimidating.  While I was making it I had my doubts, but once it had been washed and dried it is nice and soft awesome for snuggling with.

The totals?  18 skeins of Super Saver – with not a lot left over.  That is a total of 5,712 yards of yarn.  3.25 MILES of yarn.

The pattern is surprisingly easy – at times it is mind numbing.  the fortunate thing is the construction is genius so that a little common sense can carry you through when nothing else does.

And the final product? Amazing. Beautiful. HUGE. Great for a snuggle with a short blanket thief, there is enough to go around I am so happy I finished this that it makes me giddy – and every time I sit wrapped up in it, or toss it over the back of the sofa I get a little thrill of accomplishment.

So there it is the long path from UFO to FO, the agony of defeat, the thrill of victory, and the need to find a new long term project.

Ravelry Page

But – right now my life is starting to look a little sane. As in not quite as crazy as before. Before crazy was well and truly bat-crap-crazy. So now the insane just looks relatively sane.

Suicidal Tendencies had this to say about it “Who the hell you calling crazy? You wouldn’t know what crazy was if Charles Manson was eating Fruit Loops on your front porch.”

Only he isn’t. Not on my front porch at least. That said methinks it might be time to truly consider some blog CPR. Hate to stand around and watch this baby choke on her tongue. Plus it seems it would be wise to brush up on my WordPress skills as they may actually come in handy for the job that pays the bills. And we all know that these days a job that pays the bills is nothing to be sneezed at. I will shake my fist at it and curse it during the off hours, but truly I am not sure that really makes me feel any better, rather I think it just gives me something to do.

For those expecting the crafty content – I have actually made a few things, but I have to fix my dis-functional picture storage system stop being too cheap to pay for my damn flick’r account.

That said – I think I will do my taxes this weekend and perhaps as a reward for that I will re-up the flick’r.

Back soon y’all – just like a blank billboard – keep watching this space.