Striped Toe Socks

It wasn't always good, thank you for reading anyway. It was kind of fun though. I like the journal aspect of blogging everyday, a simple recording of what I did or what I was thinking on a random November day is kind of nice. I would love to say I came up with something thoughtful or even funny each time, i wish I could have, but it was OK. I also wish my Ctrl button wasn't loose and didn't move under my Shift button preventing me from capitalizing letters, grrrr! Alas, onward we go into December, the most busy, stressful and often most fun/family/friend filled month of the year.

Today the girls and I went to an alpaca farm out in Fairborn. I was a little hesitant about the whole thing, not really knowing what to expect at someones house, but it was a lot of fun. The property itself was beautiful. The owners have lived there for twenty years. They were looking for something they could all do together when they bought their first alpaca. Now they have thirty three. The barn is the kind of place stories should take place, old, with lots of nooks and crannies for imaginations to flow.





There were hand made items. The sweaters were so soft and warm

There were felted items also.

I bought some yarn (of course!), both from this farm and some that they traded for. I'll have to get pictures of that up tomorrow.

Overall it was just a really neat experience. The family is proud of the land and the alpacas. They have worked very hard to take good care of the animals and the love for their work shines through. This is the first year they have held an open house and although it is small, they did a nice job and I wish them lots of sales.

#1. What’s your favorite carbonated beverage?
Root beer

#2. What’s your favorite spicy food?
Homemade salsa

#3. How do you handle hot dishes? Oven mitt, pot holder, towel?
Oven mitts

#4. Ice cream. How do you like yours?
With peanut butter sauce and whipped cream

I'm so full I can barely think!

~A drama free family gathering.

~Yummy food and friends to share it with.

~J and Molly

~An afternoon spent watching Arrested Development.

~Knitting socks!

This is what Molly does while I'm in the laundry room.

I have a cold and all I want to do is curl up in bed and sleep.

Here is a list of things that bring me comfort when I'm sick.

~Tea, Emily, the Apple Crumble is all I want!

~A good book, currently reading The Magician, the Immortal Nicholas Flammel.

~Carbs, my Mom always made me toast with butter when I was sick.

~Some easy knitting, I'm craving a scarf, something thick and super soft, but it will need to wait for after Christmas.

Going to lie down now.

Addressing some comments from yesterday. (thank you for giving me something to write about) When I have the chance in daylight I will take pictures of it. I didn't have a small enough needle to sew the snap on, otherwise I would have worn it Sunday. I promise you will all see it soon. :)

I finished the Shalom a few days ago. It's a little big in the arm holes, which is frustrating, but I think it will look ok. I added snaps and a decorative button at the top instead of below the bodice as I had intended. Buttoning it at the bodice gave it a really pulled in look, and not in a good way.

I started my Mom's hat, using the You Haven't Met our Women pattern. I was reminded again though, that I can't count and chat at Knit Night without screwing something up. Thankfully it was just one row. It should be a quick knit and I want to add some other things to her package, but she really doesn't need anything.

I'm also plugging away at the Jaywalkers. My gauge is a little off. I decided to do a few decreases and hopefully they will still fit fine. I mean, they're sock, how bad can it be? (famous last words)

I need to pick up some yarn for D's fingerless gloves and get those going. I'm afraid they may take longer than I am planning on. I'm still at the "I have plenty of time" stage of thought on them.

Knitting was good tonight, a nice size group, and yay Emily is home!

J and I went and saw the new Bond today. It was very Bond like, which I don't really love. There was something elevated in the last one with Daniel Craig that made me like it more. Or perhaps it was the scene with Daniel Craig being questioned, naked, but I digress. The heat isn't working in our car, except for the seat warmers which leaves the rest of my body jealous and confused, the theater was also freezing, so by the time we got home all I wanted was to be warm. I put on jammies and climbed under the down comforter, ahhhhhh! Then I napped for four hours and only way up when J woke me. I guess I needed some sleep. So I'm sure I'll be up half the night now, but it was worth it.

#1. What’s the worst tasting food you’ve ever eaten?
Canned beets, my Dad made me try them when I was a kid. He told me if I didn't like them I could spit them out in his hand, much to his surprise I did just that.

#2. Share a funny or embarrassing story about a meal you’re made.
Not a meal, but I made a cake once with twice as much butter than was supposed to be in it. It must have weighted five pounds. My husband called it "mistake cake".

#3. What food do you burn or have problems cooking most often?
Rice, I blame my stove though.

#4. Name two foods you’ll be eating on this Thanksgiving.
Turkey and stuffing!

~Friends, near and far

~"Shakey" snow globe snow

~Smell of, and taste of for that matter, fresh baked bread

~An almost done paper

~FO's

~Molly, she looked so cute with snow on her nose.

What is your all time favourite yarn to knit with?

Alpaca, hands down, I just love how soft it is.

Your favourite needles?

Addi turbos, I use circs for everything at this point and these are the best.

The worst thing you've ever knit?

My first scarf, it's such nice yarn, but it's just kind of awful.

Your most favourite knit pattern? (maybe you don't like wearing it...but it was the most fun to knit)

French Market Bag, simple and mindless.

Most valuable knitting technique?

Increases, I remember when I first started to knit I thought I would never learn them and would always have to make straight things. In a more advanced way, short row heels.

Best knit book or magazine?

Interweave Knits, I love how wearable everything is.

Your favourite knit-a-long?

Never done one.

Your favourite knitblogs?

I love Yarn Harlot and my friends blogs, I think I need to add some more knitting blogs to my daily read.

Your favourite knitwear designer?

Kate Gilbert, I just love her flair.

The knit item you wear the most? (how about a picture of it!)

My socks have gotten a lot of wear lately, also fingerless gloves.

(From So Much Yarn, So Little Time)

Growing up I loved Christmas. Not only did I get two weeks off of school, but there were all the fun holiday traditions my Mom and Dad had established. (and there were presents, but of course I was never that materialistic) My Dad would decorate the inside and outside of the house, candles in the windows, garland on the railings and over the doors, lights outside. We would spend an evening decorating the tree, the perfect tree, that my Dad had picked out. On Christmas Eve we would go to church for the candlelight service and then watch A Christmas Carol (the George C. Scott one) or It's A Wonderful Life. In the morning we were allowed to open out stockings before our parents got up, but had to wait for them for everything else. After presents my Mom would make a special breakfast. I loved it, all of it, I would look forward to it all year.

As an adult I've tried to hold on to all those special things, tried to make my own traditions, but my husband is pretty indifferent to Christmas. He doesn't have all the great holiday memories that I do. It has said over and over that "it's just a day". After his parents moved away he was sad without them, missing them extra during those family times. We spend one Christmas dinner alone together and he cried over his loneliness.

Now his parents will be home for Christmas for the first time in years and he wants to leave, to go to Cleveland and spend Christmas with his grandparents, who we are frankly, just not close to. I can't help but feel like the holidays of my youth are lost to me now. Now Christmas is stress and worries and fighting, and I hate it.

Ugg.

In class today this amazingly ignorant woman announced that due to all the gay people in the world she didn't feel safe letting her daughter go to the womens restroom alone. As if all the lesbians in the world are just waiting to molest her precious offspring. I sat there in complete shock, sure I had heard her wrong. My friend Liz confirmed later that I hadn't. Geez.

I had the cutest/funniest conversation with a Walgreens cashier today. He reminded me of Coffee Guy, that silly sweetness. He told me all about how he was putting himself through school and all the pros and cons of working at Walgreens. Although I had gone in to buy Aleve to fight killer cramps, I came out smiling.

The good and bad I guess.

Some have been good, some not so much, but I have made it two weeks. Yay for me!

I am so madly in love with the Shalom, I'm almost afraid to say it. I didn't get as much done tonight as I had hoped since Lisa and I left early to go to Dolcessa and see Alex. No car trouble tonight, thank God. Alex is in such a good happy place right now, I hope he can stay there and add school back in next quarter. I want so much for him, but I know life is hard and rarely turns out the way you expect it to.

I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving and then Christmas is so close after that. The quarter is almost done and I am honestly just flat out relieved. It has been so much less stressful since dropping the math class. School feels completely endless right now, like I'm on a school treadmill where you never go forward, just on and on, while staying exactly where you were before.

(Off to knit a few more rows before bed)

Instead of going to Troy, we had lunch and went to some thrift stores. I wish I could say I found all these cool things I can show and tell at knitting, but alas no. I'm just don't have the skills it seems to take to find the good stuff. I think it really is just a lack of patience, and the smell is weird, like old people. I found a few sweaters I thought about reclaiming, but after carrying them around I just put them back, I lost the will to buy.

Well, in the middle of writing this Camron called and we all talked for almost two hours. It was so good to talk to him and I got off the phone and cried. I think I'm just feeling overly emotional, what else is new.

Ugg, pointless blog today.

Today was one of those days that seemed chilly when in fact it really wasn't. None the less I showered and put my jammies bottoms and sweater on and settled in for a day of housework and paper writing. The paper took so much longer than I thought it would. I only got a third of it done. I have to read journal articles, summarize them and then answer some questions. This sounded so easy, but I didn't think about the fact that these are written by scientists and doctors for others of their kind.

Last night I made a yummy Italain stew and I thought you'all might enjoy the recipe. Chris it's a meat free dish.


Italian Tortellini Stew
9 cups

---

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 rib celery, finely chopped (omitted due to my hatred of it)
1 onion, chopped
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained
1 (15.5-ounce) can Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 (32-ounce) container ready-to-serve chicken broth (Iused more like 40 oz)
2 tablespoons dried basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 (8-ounce) package dried cheese-filled tortellini
I also added garlic

---

1. In a soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add carrot, celery, and onion, and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
   
2. Stir in tomatoes, beans, chicken broth, basil, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes.
   
3. Add zucchini and tortellini then bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, or until tortellini are tender.

I've been moving right along on the Shalom. I finished the yoke tonight, so know it's time to move into the mindless body. I don't mind this kind of knitting, it allows my thoughts to travel elsewhere.

Tomorrow a return trip to Troy, since D was jealous that we had so much fun without her last week. Can I leave town without buying yarn?

Sam-if we didn't already have a car full I'd stop and pick you up. I promise to drink something hot and yummy for you.

Here is a quickie, enjoy!

~ Family dinners
~Morning sun, evening rain
~Drinks with new friends

I don't have a lot to say about much, but do have a little to say about some things.

1) I'm reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, I both love and hate it. It envelopes you and yet you spend each page wondering if something bad will happen next. I love Edgar and and Almondine and the other dogs and I want to keep them safe on the pages.

2) My MIL has asked J and I to have dinner with my BIL and his girlfriend. This would be the woman he was seeing right after his separation and probably during his marriage. I don't think much of him, so I'm not sure why I should bother with her.

3) The Shalom is moving along slowly, but I like it.

4) I'm hitting dead ends while trying to find journal articles for a psych paper, ugg!

5) Sephora order is here!

The only grandpa I ever knew was on my Dad's side. My Mom's Dad died when she was sixteen. My grandfather was a complicated man, although I doubt if he was around to ask he would agree with that. He died sixteen years ago, but I don't hink I would have known him any better now than i did then.

I was around eight when I found out he used to beat my Dad on a regular basis. I saw the scars on his back, and thinking they were some kind of back wrinkle "old" people got I laughed. My Mom explained that they were from a belt and that Grandpa had done it. I remember being embarrassed to have laughed, sad and shocked. I got the story in bits and pieces as the years went on. That my grandparents had a difficult marriage, that my grandfather drank, that my grandmother left her boys alone with him so she could get away. My grandmother had severe depression, she was treated with electroshock therapy that wiped out the memory of my Dad and his brothers. It would be very easy to blame one or the other of them for what happened or how they reacted to it, but of course they shared the blame in all of that mess that created five sons. As an adult my Dad confronted his father about the abuse. My grandfather claimed no memory of it, said he was sorry if that was what happened. I don't think he ever said anything to his mother. I do now the grief he felt when his father died was not comparable to the matter of fact way he dealt with losing his mother.

My grandfather was in WWII and he always described that time as the best years of his life. As and adult my Dad would talk on the phone with grandpa and he would tell him stories of the War. It was until after he died that we found his metals, a purple heart and silver star. He had shrapnel blown into his chest during one battle, but refused to ever have it removed, he just kept going. He was in the second wave at Normandy, he heard General Patton's speech to the troops.

When I try to add all these things up in my mind I come up with a whole man. Painfully, horribly flawed, but those years were not the whole of what defined him. I don't have a lot of memories of him, but I do picture him smiling when I think of him. My Dad shared this story at his funeral. When his Dad would come from work, when all the boys were little, they would run to the kitchen and encircle him for hugs. He would always laugh and tell them they had steamed up his classes. It's such a small thing, and sad to think that is the only really good memory to share, but it's something. Something to cling to and know he wasn't all bad.

If you need a giggle, check out the other costumes.

I feel alittle shy about this. It's as if I'm making someone enjoy knitwear by giving it to them. Tjat's pretty silly though, since the people I am thinking of knitting for, with the exception of my mother in law, don't need and think everything I make is wonderful and magical. I want to keep it to smallish things, socks, cowls, my Mom wants a hat. It also means yarn shopping, yay! This would also be family budgeted since it is for gifts, not just from my personal spending fund. I hadn't given my MIL much thought, since she knits, but she very sweetly and shyly asked me tonight if I would make her something.

In other news and thoughts of the day. Yesterday was my Grandma's birhtday, not today like Mom thought. Grandma was born in a cabin in the hills of KY 87 yrs ago, and apparently the midwife wasn't paying too close attention to the clock. For her first fifty years Grandma thought her birthday was the 8th, but when she began collection Social Security she discovered her legal birthday was the 9th. I also think she mizes it up every year to confuse us. I got her my now standard gift, scratch off lottery tickets. She loves them and often wins small amounts of money. I get a cut if she hits it big.

Woo hoo! I wasn't sure I was going to make it today before midnight.

Today was the first time in months that Mom and I got to spend time with Kim and Chrissy. Chrissy been cheer leading, which is a life/time sucker. Tipp City was having it's Christmas celebration, which meant everything was packed. We managed to get a a table at Harrison's, it was yummy and the server was so sweet to Christina. After that we squeezed our way through the toy store and then left. I had made a passing mention of wanting to go to Troy while we were up that way. No ulterior motive at all, I swear. Of course, by then we were freezing and had the need for warm drinks, Night Sky Coffee house was in order. Time got away from me though and at ten to five I rushed over to Ewetopia. One of the owners, Tina, was working and she was so sweet, helping me pick out yarn and staying after hours. I did some hauling, more that I intended of course, I got some Happy Feet sock yarn (love the name) and some Lamb's Pride to make the Shalom cardigan. Poor Central Park Hoodie is crying out of loneliness in it's bag. There so many cute shops in Troy that I wanted to go in. Oh pity, I'll have to go back soon.

#1. Name a food you like that uses a red sauce or anything red in it.
~whole wheat pasta and tomato sauce

#2. Name a food you like with whipped cream in it or on it.
~pie

#3. Name a food you like with blueberry in it.
~muffins

#4. Share a recipe for pasta or dessert or a beverage.

Wonder Bars
1 and 1/3 sticks butter
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 and 3/4 cups flour
2 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 pkg chips of choice

Melt butter
Add sugar and dry ingredients
Fold in chips
Spread in 9x13 pan
Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees

Some of you might you call it a "pantry", but it is really a food and random stuff sucking hole in my wall. Today I spent three hours cleaning and rearranging it. If you've been to my house before you know how awful it looked before, so I'm pretty proud of it right now.

As much as I love things to be in a constant state of order, it rarely ever gets there or stays there long enough to enjoy it. So here it is while it lasts.

I often have the same things on this list, family and friends, and Molly. I will always have them on my list, but I'm trying to expand to include smaller things. These thing often seem like they should go on the in my head version of a things that make me happy list, but what should I be thankful for if not the things that make me happy? Or is the point to be thankful for everything even when I don't understand why? In The Hiding Place, a book I read in school and later on my own, Corrie Ten Boom talks about being in Ravensbruck, a concentration camp in Germany. The bunks were infested with fleas and Corrie, through her faith, thanked God for the fleas, not knowing why, but trusting there was a reason. She later learned that those fleas kept the guards out of the rooms, keeping the women much safer and allowing her to share her faith with others. I am by no means that strong in faith or character, but that part of her story still stands out to me.

Corrie Ten Boom in her later years


This is one of those posts that got away from me and became something else entirely.

I'm thankful for:
~A clean soft bed to cuddle, read and make love in
~That my mind holds the capacity to learn and my heart to expand and love
~The weather this week and the cold winter to come
~The holidays
~Tea
~Socks that I made and future socks others will stay warm in because of my hands and skill
~Having enough
~Books

Now I hope we can all move forward, unite and be a stronger country.

It's election day and although I have a lot to say it won't be said here. I try to keep politics out of my friendships. I just don't like conflict, so for me it's easier to just not go there at all. I love the whole political process though and I'm proud to live in a country that changes leadership in an organized and violent free way. When the Constitution was written that was an unknown idea.

I also couldn't be happier that all the campaign ads will stop after today.

Although the weekend didn't turn out as planned, what does? it was still good. J and I had planned to spend Friday and Saturday together, but he had to work. We did catch up on this season of Heroes, one of few network shows we watch. I love this show, always have, and season three has been much stronger and more even than two, and full of surprises. I spent much of Sunday reading and was able to finish the book Time of Your Life, it was a page turner, but also it's melancholy tone clung to me for much of the day. Thankfully, a happy ending and Sunday night knitting saved my mood.

Sundays knitting had been feeling stale for me for longer than I care to admit. I could nevr put my finger on why and suspected all along it was me. Thinking back knitting hasn't gone well for me until recently and I can see why going to a group focused on knitting was a reminder of my own failings. Things are better now and some new members have enhanced and refreshed us as a whole.

I woke up early, again, but felt fine until midday, when sleepiness began to tug on me. After class I did some homework, cast on the next sock and allowed myself a nap. I haven't felt this well rested in a long time. Which is good because now I have work, the grocery store and hanging out with Christina to fill the rest of my day.

In case you missed it, I finished the sock!

One of the first things I wanted to make when I learned how to knit was socks. J was excited that his, otherwise uncrafty wife, could furnish him with a wardrobe of the thick, warm, strong socks his tired, work on them all day, feet yearned for. I looked loningly at sock patterns, eventually learned to use the confusing DPN's and thought socks might be in my future. I then discovered Magic Loop, making the whole process much more appealing to me. I got a book all about how to knit socks with the magic loop. I found this book to be lacking in clear cut directions. I also founf myself lacking in good "practice" sock yarn. I was painfully using too small needles for my practice sock. My heel was all wrong and I was completely confused. It is at this point I pushed the idea of socks aside and focused on other knitting. I no longer cared what cute socks my friends made. I ignored sock patterns on Knitty and Ravelry. Then Lisa needed my help. My feet are the same short, but wide size 7's as her Mom's. She finihsed a sock and asked me to try it on to make sure it would fit. Behold! It fit and I didn't want to take it off. Something shifted in me. I needed to make socks for myself, for J even, though not a whole wardrobe.

I found the sock yarn I had bought months before, a silky yellow wool. I had begun the ribbing, but had put it aside. I looked at tutorials and found a few that were helpful. I talked to Emily and Lisa about the heel, my most feared sock part, and decided a short row heel sounded doable. And it was. I can't claim a complete sock and I am no where near two, but I do have an almost finished sock that I feel is just a beginning.

I often feel like my head is either overwhelmed and empty or overwhelmed and too full. Part of this blog is to allow an outlet for my assorted thoughts, observations and random emotions. As part of that effort and to maybe evolve a little I've decided to participate in NaBloPoMo.

So consider yourselves warned, minutia will follow.

Today I had lunch and a long coffee/writing session with D and my Mom. They have decided to write a novel and have begun to develop characters and plot a story. It was at this point that I realized what a cynic I am. The story is ok, it's not going to be the next Great American novel, but it's no worse than your average Lifetime movie. My face gave me away though. I have no poker face. I hope I do better when I have kids.

We also went to Van Maur, the new anchor store at the Greene. I's very high end and I enjoyed walking around, touching the clothes I couldn't afford. It reminded me of girls weekends in Chicago, which always brings back bittersweet, but mostly happy memories. We havev't had a long weekend since Beth died. Now Chrstina is old enough to go with us and start making her own memories. I hope we are able to plan somethng for spring. Those trips are special. They're part of how we formed the tight family unit we are.

Tomorrow, sock knitting.