Annie Knits

Mission Accomplished!

We have a Catholic Elementary School Graduate!  And as hard as I tried to be all cynical and an educational snob, I got a little tear in my eye when she was all dressed up and ready to go.

The dress, found this week by Amanda and Christy (Thanks, guys!  Great find!) was lovely on her, and as you can see, she felt lovely in it.  The pearls are a gift from Dad and me and the updo happened at the salon earlier in the afternoon. 

This is one very proud former 8th grader, let me tell you.

She is the shortest in her class, which was an advantage in this situation as she got to lead the class into church.

And the ceremony was lovely and she got a 8th grade completion certificate (what they called the document in everyone's folder -- sounds like a consolation prize, doesn't it?), but the real meat of the evening didn't get started until we all got over to the school cafeteria.  First, there was a cake and punch reception for the honorees and their guests.

Dear Daughter with Dad and Dad's Parents. 

Dear Daughter with best friends and partners in crime.

Dear Daughter with favorite teacher -- Mr. E. sure makes Social Studies come alive for these kids.  They're lucky to have him.

Then everyone but the 8th graders, their parents, the principal, the parish priest, and a few of the teachers left and the party started.

Dear Daughter and fellow honorees doing that crazy line dance they play all the time on Radio Disney ... I don't know the name, but they can all do it.

And they can all do the Y in YMCA.  Dear Daughter is in there somewhere.  It got to be kind of a mosh pit as the evening wore on.

And here the Literature Teacher, Ms. R, is doing some amazingly long karaoke rap song that had the kids in absolute hysterics.  Apparently she'd been promising them she'd do it at graduation.  Again, Dear Daughter is down there somewhere...

Now, you can see how it was impossible to maintain my curmudgeonlyness in the face of that smile.  We all had a really nice time and we got home way too late last night.  At one point I did the TimeWarp with a fellow parent and the 5th grade homeroom teacher (likely Dear Son's teacher next year -- **grin**).  And you can't tell me that there weren't more than  just the three of us who knew that song!    And while there were coolers and bottles amongst many of the parents, my indiscretions were happy-induced.   

So.  On to High School.  Placement tests and uniform fittings are in a week and a half.  Whew.

Oh, and pssst.  There's a finished blanket in the house.  And most of an "Itty Bitty Hat" to match.   I'll show you pictures when I'm sure new mommy's not looking. 

Have a great weekend!   

Home Stretch

My Mitered Squares Baby Blanket is headed for the finish line!  Whew!  Here he is getting his mitered edging:

If you'll remember, I've knit this baby mostly to the specifications in the book, with a yarn substitution of Cascade Sierra for the Tahki Cotton Classic.  The mitered window pane edging is given for this blanket and for the log cabin blanket.  For which this yarn was originally intended and purchased as a kit from Pattern Works. I had to add a skein of each color though.  (Did anyone catch that reference to STASH KNITTING?) You'll also notice that I'm incapable of non-matchy squares.  Seriously.  I tried.  This way, the baby can just hypnotize himself on a regular basis, right?  Like funky and psychedelic, man.

How big is my blanket?  That's a quarter for scale. (I just thought the quarter would be fun -- it really doesn't help visualize the size of this blanket, does it?)  Without a border, it's about 30" x 45".

The specs?  Two skeins each (less actually -- more like a skein and a half) of Cascade Sierra in Navy #44, Lime Green #10, Baby Blue #23, French Blue #27, Butter Yellow # 07, and Cream #3.  I knit the miters on 9 inch number US 6 bamboo needles and I'm doing the edging in two rows (one garter ridge) of each color on my new 47 inch Addi Lace needles.  Oooo, sharp points!

And, yes, the squares are a little wonky in this picture.  That's because they are, in fact, wonky in real life to a certain extent.  And because it's been balled up in my lap while I seamed it and knit on the border.  Speaking of seaming.  Here is the back of this puppy -- whew.  When the Mason Dixon gals said the back of this blanket is not for the faint of heart, they weren't kidding.

Pretty good, I think.  Not LOVELY, but pretty good.  I have a few seaming tips if you're interested.

Ok. For each block, you follow the magenta and cyan arrows -- seam right through that little middle square.  It'll be off kilter no matter what you do, I think, but this way there aren't so many ends to weave in right there in the middle.  And seam each block (which consists of 4 miters, right?) with whatever color that center square is -- there's gonna be fudging in the center and it might as well blend in...  To minimize ends, I also seamed blocks this way.  Right across the center line for all six, then up the middle.  Worked for me.  I still had quite a little ball of ends. 

I'll show a blocked and edged (oh, you mean FINISHED?) blankie before I mail it off for the shower.

Would I make this blanket again?  Sure.  As much as I make anything again ... this pattern is addictive and the seaming, while a little onerous, was not so much as to put me off doing another.  In pretty girl colors.  Get on that, Sisters!

What else have I been thinking about lately?  (Don't judge me too harshly, ok?  I'm still slightly crabby from the pangs in my neck -- not disabled, mind you, just crabby.)   In no particular order:

• Gossip.  I was the recipient of some nasty gossip this week and I have to say that the urge to go back to the gossiper (I got it second hand) was powerful.  In the end, I got sage counsel to end the chain of nastiness with me.  To shut up, in fact.   And righteous indignation at the stupidity and viciousness of the gossip aside, shutting up is the right thing to do.  It's just hard.  I'd like to wring the originator's neck.  Really.  And the passer's neck too for that matter, whom I did tell not to pass on this bit of untruth on under any circumstances, please.  What I did do was share the gist of it with a friend who still sympathized this this nasty piece of work/originator so as to eliminate that sympathy.  Oh.  I'm a baaaad person, and crabby lately.  Don't forget crabby.
• Graduation.  Dear Daughter "graduates" from 8th grade this week.  And while it is certainly a milestone, a rite of passage so to speak from little kids school to big kids school, it really is also an attendance prize in the class's case, you know?  Not a bar to jump over.  And the hoopla assigned to this milestone is getting to me.  The dresses, the brunches, the rehearsals, the class trip, the class gift, the class motto, the general hoohaa.  Toldja I'm crabby.   I'm seriously trying not to telegraph my impatience to her -- and she's excited at the prospect of a party at school and the class video, which includes lots of pictures of all the kids from babyhood up to now, she's declined the invitations to all the post grad parties (they go on for weeks! ) as her best friends are going on vacation right after the ceremony and won't be in attendance.  And, quite frankly, she had enough of these other people.  So.  Fine.  (As an aside, as a person with post-grad work under her belt, I guess I'm impatient with all the trappings assigned to these milestones -- they aren't, one would hope, terminal educational experiences after all!)  See?  Crabby.
• De-Crapification.  Would someone come to my house and accomplish this, please? 
• Grocery shopping.  This too.  Would someone please take care of this?
• A Diet.  Ditto.
• DVR Ettiquette.  Which takes precedence I ask you?  The Cheetah Girls 2 movie or the finals for Dancing With The Stars?  Careful how you answer that one...   

Mwhaah!

You all are so lovely!  All of your suggestions and sympathy and concern! 

I have found the neck exercises and am completing the list religiously.  I have rested for two days (no knitting!) and have drunk a river of water (Jenn!) and have taken quite a bit of ibuprofen.  My Dr. says to keep this up and see if I get appreciably better (I am!) and then we'll see about physical therapy if we have to (hopefully we won't!).  And I think I should look into (cover your eyes, Amanda) a chiropractor. 

So.  You'll hear from me again soon.  Rest assured I'm improving.  But this is really all of the time I can spend sitting in front of the computer. 

Love Ya!

A Cry for Help

I really should dig out the name of that bone guy and call him.  Or call my internal medicine guy and get his name again.  But everything seems like too much trouble today.  If you're in no mood for a bitch session or have no helpful advice for cervical vertebra stuff, I guess you don't have to read any more.  You can go on about your business.  Sniff.

Let's see, Dear Son was finishing kindergarten so it was 4 years ago in April that I started having shooting pains in my right arm.  Thought I was having a heart attack!  I was too young to die!  Shows you what I know about my anatomy (just enough to be dangerous, not enough to have any real diagnostic ability).  Turns out one of the vertebra in my neck was pushing on a nerve and I could have surgery (yikes!  Note to self:  Surgeons always recommend surgery...) or do three months of physical therapy.  Needless to say, rather than have surgery on MY NECK and risk PARALYSIS I chose the p.t.  Worked wonders.  I was fine for 4 years.  Notice the "was".

Yesterday, I bent over to get the laundry out of the dryer and ... well ... let's just say it hurt.  Let's not say what I said.  'Cause those were some baaaad words. 

Unwilling to admit to myself that it was a similar problem or a re-awakening of the same problem (even though it felt exactly the same) I took a hot shower and rested my neck and shoulder yesterday.  Very little knitting on the cotton baby blanket.  Oh, I seamed some of it (which is another story) but I knit very little.  Even though the deadline is looming...  Stressed me out!

And I cried.  Because it hurt so much.  And because I couldn't do any of the stuff I love.  Or any of the stuff I needed to do.  And because I remember all too well how long it took me to come back from this very same thing 4 years ago.  Sniff again.

The cute little p.t. guy gave me exercises to do back then.  He said, and I quote, "Do these exercises or this will happen again."  And to my credit, I did them.  All summer and well into the fall.  And when I remembered to do them through the winter.  And what I could remember to do in the spring, because by then I had lost the paper he gave me describing the exercises.  They involved pushing on a wall and leaning into a doorway and something about rotating your head and pushing on your forehead.  And standing up straight. I wonder, if I go over there, if they'll give me the paper again... probably not.

So.  I'll call my internal medicine Dr. this morning.  Maybe I can bypass the bone surgeon, the whatever kind of scan and x-rays I had to have last time and skip straight to p.t.  A girl can hope, right?  Sheesh. 

And you know, when your neck hurts?  You can't think very well.  You send out emails that make you look incompetent.  And you have a hard time quizzing your daughter for her finals -- her English finals... you know, the subject you taught for 13 years?  And you have a REALLY hard time deciphering your dear son's Worlds of Warcraft cd instructions.  REALLY hard time.  And that makes him sad because he bought it with his birthday money and he really just wants to create some online mayhem and he can't because you can't type in some code correctly.    And you wish your husband was in town to do all this stuff.  Sniff again.  And you want to lie down, but that hurts too.

Here is a picture to cheer us up.  That baby blanket is 2 miters from being almost done.  Then I have to seam and pick up and knit the border.

The top two squares are seamed.  Here is what I've learned about seaming mitred squares:

1. It's kind of a pain in the butt, but not a pain in the neck.
2. It's quite hard to get the middle square to look like a square... But it's easy to get it to look like a blob.
3. Best to seam, then, with the color of the middle square.  Because then, any fudging you have to do looks like you knit it that way... good or bad, depending.
4. To have the least bulk in the middle, which accounts for some of the problems above, seam right on past the middle -- you know, all the way across two mitres, bottom to top and right to left -- then you don't have 4 more ends to weave in at the middle.  This technique, however, has yet to result in a more square middle square.  But I have 4 squares to go, so I might hit the jackpot.  You never know. 

I dearly love this blanket.  Hope new nephew does as well.

And, it's nearly 8:30, so I'm off to call my Internal Medicine Dr.  Wish me luck.  Or give me advice.  Whatever you've got?  I'll take it.  I'm a little bit desperate.

Nakey, Nakey, Eggs and Bakey!

Monte on Tuesday, when he would go out only  during the earliest, coolest part of the morning,  and for the rest of the day would find the coolest, darkest place in the house and and stretch out and  pant (it's only May, folks, it's bound to warm up from here!) ...

 

Monte today -- shaved within an inch of his life.  And back outside in the heat of the day.  And looking again very gawky and puppy-ish.  He hid under the table when he got home from his spa day.  I don't know if it's because he felt kind of funny without the piles of fur he left behind, or if it's because we all laughed at him 'til we cried.  Snork.  Poor puppy.  But he's much happier now, and cooler.  Big dog doesn't seem to mind the heat nearly as much -- so she retains her mane.  And her dignity.

The Stash is on the move again.  On the right is the box it came to me in... on the left, of course, are the two boxes that left my house on Thursday.  23 and 24 lbs. respectively.  I will admit to adding to them while they were here.  And taking out.  My prerogative I hope.  Each has lots of new sock yarn and yarn for at least three adult sweaters along with other stuff.  Lots of other stuff.  I feel much better now.

Mitre Madness is rampant here.  So much so that my wrist hurts.  And my right thumb ... from all the purling.  Here you have the color combos for five of the six squares.  You'll remember that I'm making my Mitre Blanket  baby sized and out of Cascade Sierra, a cotton wool blend that, to my taste, is lighter and softer than the Tahki Cotton Classic used in the pattern.  I've used six colors and my blocks are homogeneous -- you know, all the same color progression.  I'm just like that, I guess.  I'll put on a garter border after they're seamed. 

What's the rush, you ask?  Oh, the shower for my sister's baby is only THIS WEEKEND!  Crud.  Actually, this is an out of state shower to which I was not invited.  But I wish I'd have known about it as I'd have sent a gift.  I mean it's my own sister's first baby, for goodness sake!  What better reason to buy yarn and knit?

This blanket will go to a shower in early June to which my mother assures me I will be invited.  She also says that there will be more people there who would appreciate such a thing.  Um, right.

I have to admit to falling prey to the mitre compulsion you've certainly read about on other blogs.  These little things are addictive to knit.  Except purling cotton hurts my hands.  I hold the needles funny I guess.  I've changed over to 10 inch straight needles from the circular needles I was using and that's helped a little bit but I can't explain why.

So.  I'll get back to you all after Mother's Day preparations are complete. 

A happy Mother's Day to you mothers out there, and a good weekend to the rest of you.  See ya.

A Black Hole

I spent the day knitting today -- well, knitting while I waited to get my car's safety inspection and 30,000 mile service done and then while waiting my turn at our our illustrious Missouri Department of Revenue privately owned satellite license renewal place.

I've blogged about this before (I'll link up when I look back through the archives), but for the uninitiated, here it is in a nutshell.  Our then new governor, Matt Blunt, promised in his inaugural address that he would save Missourians' money.  That he'd trim our state budget and cut taxes through the privatization of several state services ripe for the picking er that would be a good match for privatization.  One of which was Medicaid -- but that's another entry.  Another was privatizing the state run Department of Revenue offices.  He did so.  Come to find out that employees, while often remaining employed, lost state pensions and healthcare -- cha-ching!  Savings!  And that the "firm" chosen to run the "satellite offices" in the St. Louis area is headed up by a man who contributed substantially to the Blunt campaign.  Ok.  Whatever.  I get cronyism and that you reward supporters with cushy state jobs like Lieutenant Governor and International Business Connection/Junkett guy, etc.  But this guy?  According to the Post Dispatch, as of this time last year, had made $2 million off of the fees charged to ... wait for it ... Missourians by these offices.  See, here's the rub.  Governor Blunt meant to say he was saving the State of Missouri money, not Missourians.  Because we now pay a fee over and above the state fees for the privilege of doing business with Mr. Crony.  As if we have a choice!  Nice Sleight of Hand, Governor!  The state coffers look lots better, but the coffers of Missourians?  Not so much.

Fast forward to today.  After I wait an hour to renew my plates (yeah, I know, I'm a day late and so was everyone else in the place but April can't be the only month full of slackers so why don't they have more people in the dang place at the end and beginning of the month for pete's sake -- there was almost a riot when a Bosnian lady needed to ask a question before she waited in the line!), I write my check and collect my paperwork and get ready to leave.  I look at the charges and stop dead in my tracks. 

I have a charge of $5 for being a day late.  Totally fine.  My fault.  I didn't leave enough time in the school day yesterday to wait in the last-day-of-the-month lines.  Then I see that my "handling fee" isn't $5 like usual, it's $7.  I ask the lady why it's more, whether the rates have gone up and she says, face straight as an arrow, "You renewed for two years." 

Oh, great, I think -- saved three dollars and waiting in this line again in a year -- yeehaw.  Then I think some more... Wait a second!  How come they are charging me a fee now for doing nothing for me next year?   Like, is the 09 sticker somehow more expensive to produce than the 08 one?  Did I undergo more extensive emissions testing to earn a two-year sticker and so owe more?  Nope.  Did I get better service in their new slapped together office with fewer people working in it and no public bathrooms?  No.  It's just the way of things.  They gotta get you coming and going.  So there. 

And my panties are in a bunch again.  I need to cut down on the coffee. 

Nahhh.