Labor Day weekend

Labor Day weekend! The traditional end to the summer, and what a great summer it was. The Island (tornado and all) Toad Lake,Mojito guild meetings, yarn runs to Roberts, but now back to school. This school year is already off to a rocky start. First there was the injury to the boy. In the blink of an eye his whole senior year of high school changed. My heart aches for him. His surgery went great on Tuesday, he opted not to have the nerve block, but seemed to bear the extra pain well. We had one rough night, but since then things have been on the mend. We had his post op appointment on Thursday, we got to see pictures of the surgery (this made me light headed and woozie). The dr again stressed how the boy had made the right choice to have the surgery now and not risk further injury. But the road through rehab will be long, he does not even start PT until October!
With the surgery and mom duties, I missed 1 1/2 days of our 3 days of in-service. I did go in early to do all sorts of stuff, but there is always more to do than I remember. I struggled with getting my first 2 weeks of lessons organized yesterday. I pulled out last years lesson plan book, to find my second day lesson plan for civics said "group activity" What does that mean? Two hours later I had my files out, organized, brain engaged and I am about 25% certain I can do this( I go through this every year--crazy I know). I had to call a colleague last night in a panic over which staff shirt we needed to wear which day. So much for the "first day of school" outfit I bought a couple of weeks ago. But soon (way too soon) I will be back in the grips of working full time. (How do non teachers do it? I know I should not whine, but I am a whiner, what can I say?)

While the boy was in surgery I knit. I worked on the sock off and on, but sometimes the light was not so good in the pre op room and hallway, but I muddled through. In the family waiting room (which at Luther is a misnomer---big old public waiting room in a high traffic area) I worked on the purple/white mitten for MMT's carpool buddy. Several older ladies commented on my knitting and that is was beautiful as they picked up their crochet hooks and started a baby afghan! (ok, that was mean). I have been having trouble with my right thumb, wrist, elbow and shoulder while I have been knitting lately, I have 2 theories, 1--golf. The husband and I went golfing over the weekend (NK I know I should not do that) and 2 sympathy pains for the boy. Either way, I have had to pace myself in the knitting this week. One mitten is done and the other a few rows into the cuff, I could not knit last night after the pasta feed, I opted for beer (technically beers---I had more that one). But I will get back after it.

Finally, thank you, thank you, thank you to the guild for all your kindness this week. Your prayers for the boy were very much appreciated, your yummy food has been a godsend and just knowing you are there is comforting. What in the world did I do before the guild? How did I survive?
Have a good weekend girls, guild meeting at Culver's next time---- my treat!

Back to Blogging

Sadly we have left CT blogging on her own. We have been delinquent. Sorry. Here look at the pictures of my pretty socks! See how the match the impatiens! Simple socks for The Girl. She loves the color and I love them too. If I knit diligently today, I will finish them. But no hurry, it really is not sock weather and she just left to spend a week at her Aunt's. I have been knitting, just not blogging.

I do have favor to ask though. CT's senior son is having surgery on Tuesday. So we need all the good thoughts and prayers you can send for her boy and the family. ZT dislocated his shoulder at the football scrimmage. Not only did he dislocate it, but he damaged his ligaments and tendons, and tore all of the cartilage. No more football for ZT his senior year. Which is too sad for words. He also swims, so let's pray that his recovery is speedy and that he can get in a little swim time. PLEASE. This really sucks big time for his senior year, so we will take all the prayers we can. Here look at my pretty morning glories and think good thoughts and say a quick prayer. Ready, set go! Thank you . . . from your lips to God's ears.

Okay, remember the dreaded pink cardigan. Jane this photo is for you. The Girl in her bohemian type cardigan. Actually, it looks very nice on her, and she loves it. So that is a plus. Unfortunately, she is a bit rough on it and I found a snag I need to fix already. (It appeared at the photo shoot). I am not sure but I think she dug it out of the bottom of her closet before I took the photo. She is a teenager whose clothes most of the time are on her bedroom floor. I would have included a photo of the felted pouch with needle felting but she took it with her when she left. An hour or so ago.

I have another photo (many photos today). My jacket I finished last year. I am in a quandary and am in the need of advice. Simply put, it is too big. Now I have a couple of choices. One I could rip it all out and start over, two I could felt it a bit and pray. Any thoughts or comments are very welcome here. I absolutely love this yarn. Classic Elite Waterspun (discontinued) and a beautiful Schaefer yarn with tans, greens and browns. Really, I don't know what to do. I seamed it all, but I never blended in then ends because I was unsure.

What's on my needles, just socks and my Norwegian mittens. I love my socks though, check these out. Claudia hand painted yarns. I love these colors. Oh and I did finish my cable socks with the Claudia yarns also. See . . . I have been knitting. We have also been knocking back a few of those Bacardi Silver Mojitos. If you have not tried them, you really should they are quite excellent. Also three of the four seniors have had their senior photos takes and they have all turned out beautifully . . . ASJ needs to get her girl in soon, now that her hair has grown out enough from her last unfortunate haircut (her words not mine). Back to school in a week. Oh my did this summer fly by fast.

Long sad week

When last I posted to the blog it was sunny and I was headed off to the football scrimmage, well let me tell you it was quite a scrimmage and it has been quite a week. I was excited for the scrimmage, the boy is a senior and finally has secured his spot on the O line. CB, Ronbo and I watched the scrimmage and chatted. During the final round of the scrimmage they did D first and O second. I almost left the scrimmage to go home and get dinner organized for the guild dinner, but then I thought, oh I will stay in case they run the O again, I can watch the boy. As it turned out, 3 plays from the end of the scrimmage there was a player down on the field. Ronbo (ever the observant fan) said "CT, I think that is the boy down there" CB and I stopped gabbing to check it out. Yes, no, yes, no. Finally the player got up and was helped to the sidelines. Yep, it was the boy. He had dislocated his shoulder. Great. The trainer, said she thought he would be out 2 to4 weeks, but we needed to see the Sports Medicine doctors. So we took the boy on Saturday. The examined him, x rayed him and did an MRI. From there we made an appointment with another Sports Medicine doctor for Monday. The news on Saturday was not good, but depending on the MRI results, it could be ok. On Monday, the MRI results were not good. The season was over and surgery loomed in the very near future. We let the boy decide if how to proceed. Try to re-hab and maybe play a little at the end of the season, try to re-hap and just get ready for swim, or have surgery now and be done with it and re-hab for swim. The football coaches (as did the doctor) felt surgery now was the best option. Waiting to see how the re-hab went in the hopes of playing a little at the end of the season was just extending the amount of time in a sling, also the physical nature of football could (would probably) mean re injury. So on Tuesday the boy is having the repair surgery. He is doing better than mom and dad at this point. Most of the team is treating him great, but there are a few on the team that need to grow up a bit. (That is a mom opinion there).
While the boy and the husband were at the clinic on Saturday I occupied my time with knitting my sock (and laundry). There is one little spot where I lost my mind while knitting and purling, but it adds texture, that is my story. NK gave me the pattern for the teddy bear half sweater and ASJ went with me to get more Kathmandu ( I know I do not need more Kathmandu, but it always seems I do). So I am all set for surgery on Tuesday, I can work on my socks, mittens for MMT's swim pal or the newest sweater project. That should keep my mind occupied so I don't worry too much (CB has helped me through the depression and anger phases of this whole ordeal). However, the injury has over shadowed the real issue----I have to go back to work on Tuesday, 3 days of in-service and then the kids arrive on the 4th. Yikes, my knitting time will be severely affected! But the notion of going back to work is taking a back seat to getting the boy through surgery and rehab. What a way for him to start out his senior year!

I must think I am on the Island

Truly, I must be living in la-la land. For the past 3 days I have "taken the afternoon off" and knit. I hurry to get my mom stuff done in the morning, so I can sit on the sun porch and knit all afternoon. I have concentrated on the green and tan mittens I started and ripped out on the Island. They are now down, thumbs and all (man do I hate thumbs). So now I will have warm hands this winter and they will look great with my tan coat. I plan to work on my sock until I get my next project started, the teddy bear sweater that NK made.

MMT is at her very first high school swim meet in Stevens Point. It is a relay meet and not worth the drive to Stevens Point to spend 5 or 6 hours to watch her swim a leg in a relay. They have a big relay meet here next Saturday, that is good enough. We are off to Carson park for the football scrimmage, what a great afternoon for football. My ribs are done, salad is waiting to be put together, corn ready, so everything is all set for the post scrimmage guild dinner.

BTW, GBT has called every day since she moved, she used the gift card from NK for a desk for her room. She is happy to be back in Houghton.

So What do you think?

Sorry this took so long, I felted the bag over a week ago, but getting it done took some time. First there was football, we had the scrimmage on Saturday despite the crazy weather. I came home from the scrimmage and attacked the purse. First I cut the edging off the inside of the purse (under the flap). I re finished it with a whip stitch edge, then I attacked the bottom of the bag. MMT did not like the bowl nature of the bag, so I took some of the bulk out. I stitched the bottom flat. I attached the handle and the button loop. So here it is the final finished product. It looks ok. Not fab, just ok. Needless to say I don't think I will ever try another one of these, it will be a one of a kind.

I took GBT back to Michigan Tech on Monday and Tuesday. I had 10 minutes of happiness while dropping her off, I found that Houghton has a cute little yarn shop. Now I have even more incentive to make the 5 hour drive! I can see GBT and buy yarn. While I was there I bought a pattern "for the good of the guild". It is a fair isle pull over sweater. It may be the 2008 Island project!

Nightmare on Sharon Drive

It all started about a week ago. ASJ, MMT and I went on our mini yarn hop. While I was snooping through yarn stores touching the yarn and dreaming of projects for The Island, MMT found a display project, complete with the pattern. She said, "mom, do you think you can make this?" I said, "sure, no problem." "Really mom, don't try to knit it if it will make you crazy" she said. I like a fool said "I am sure I can do this." Yeah right.

So we proceeded to buy the necessary materials to get started. That night I bragged on the blog how I was going to start a 3rd project, even though I had 2 started already. So off I went, into the unknown. I don't even know where to begin....

I cast on the bottom and followed the instructions and so far so good. The bottom of the handbag was getting bigger and the process made sense. Then came the tricky part, adding the first row of diamonds. I survived that too, although the knitting light was starting to click on, the directions made very little sense and it seemed the number of stitches were off. But some how I muddled through.

Now the fun begins. The first row of diamonds, this is where everything went sour. The directions made no sense (not even to my mechanical engineering student daughter). I tried to knit the diamond as per the instructions, it was lopsided and looked more like something from a Dr. Seuss book. I tried drinking and knitting a diamond (remember the mojito guild meeting??) That did not work any better. Finally on the way to visit UWS, I fudged the math and made a diamond that seemed to work. So I was all set, to finish the body of the purse.

Unfortunately, this thing has a flap, again the directions made little or no sense, except to say it would be floppy and ugly when it was done. You got that right. So I worked on it, until it appears that I have completed the bag, flap, edging and all. The pattern called for an I cord strap, but MMT and I decided to make a mini multi-directional scarf for the handle, lets hope it looks good when felted. So here is the handbag pre-felting, we are off to NK's to felt tomorrow, so stay tuned to see how this episode ends.

PS: MMT had a friend over and she thought it looked more like an over-sized hat, thus the picture.