Not so happy....

Right now, I'm in Illinois. Libertyville (just north of Chicago) to be exact. This morning I received a phone call from my older brother in Valparaiso, IN. Apparently, his kids have been pretty sick the past couple days and on Wed. night he took the oldest one, Riordan(12), to the emergency room and found out that he had pneumonia infecting his lungs. They gave him some antibiotics and he seemed to be doing better. On Thurs. night he began hallucinating and his skin suddenly turned blotchy red. They called an ambulance and before it even left he was unconscious.

When they got to the hospital they air-vac'd him to a hospital in Chicago and put him in ICU. The infection that was in his lungs spread to his blood and caused the vessels to become porous. Blood was leaking into the surrounding tissue in his body. He is stabilized now, his blood pressure is becoming normal, his potassium levels are up, and his color is coming back, but he is still in an induced coma to allow his body to rest and heal.

Just tonight we found out that Riordan's twin brother, Royce, is at the hospital in Valpo. I haven't heard how serious his condition is, he may be experiencing pneumonia symptoms and they want to keep an eye on him. My brother is with Royce and his other three kids, Abigail, Liam, and Nevin and they are keeping a very close eye on them as they have been experiencing symptoms as well. His wife, Christie, and their youngest daughter, Ania (that's probably spelled wrong, bad auntie tina) are staying in Chicago at the Ronald McDonald house near the hospital. The hospital is keeping a very close eye on Ania to make sure that she doesn't start to have any symptoms.

I got a ride down with my Mom, Dad, and my sister but we didn't get near Chicago in time to visit Riordan, so we are staying the night with our friends in Libertyville and are driving into the city in the morning. My mom and I are going to stay with Christie tomorrow night to help take care of the baby and provide some emotional support. If I have the means to keep you updated through here I will, otherwise I'll try and post something when I get back on Sunday. Sigh.

This, That, and the Other Thing

"This" is one of the Diamante socks I started before Christmas. I put it down just after finishing the toe and had done about two pattern repeats, Christmas knitting took over and lasted through the middle of January. "This" is being put on hold until "That" and "the Other Thing" are done.





















"That" is the beginnings of my square for the TNKG scarf. It's from my Modular Knits book which I've been dying to try some thing out of. This seemed like a good opportunity to try one of the simple patterns, that would still be interesting enough for a gift square. The yarn is GGH (Garn Grosshandel Hamburg) Maxima, 100% Merino Wool, in Dove Gray (#7). And yes, I realize the severe monochromaticism of this picture, and I kind of like it (although I'm going to attempt to add alternating strips of mauve patterned rows in the square. Perhaps I put off doing this a little too long, or maybe took on a larger task than I should have seeing as this has to be done by Thursday night. Oh well, if the Yarn Harlot can have project denial than the rest of us are entitled as well.)





















"the Other Thing" is my square for the Tuesday Knitter's charity afghan mentioned in this post. I am almost done with it, but I think it may end up a little too long. I'm hoping some of the length will get taken up when the width is stretched in blocking.
















So these are the things I've been working on over the last couple weeks (months).

I know some of you read the Daily Chum, and may already know about this, but they featured a charity called The House That Yarn Built. It's working in conjunction with the Make It Right Foundation to help build homes for Katrina victims. Yes, in these great United States we (and by "we" I mean our government) can go to war within hours and destroy countries within months, but it takes years and years to START helping our own citizens rebuild their lives after a natural disaster. Ahem, anyway. Christy, the woman who started THTYB, explains her reasons for doing this here, and is even giving away prizes in a drawing of donators, which she lists here, and here. I don't normally throw money at just any charity, I'd rather make/do something to directly help, but something about this charity spoke to me and I felt compelled to give. Oh wait, it was Brad Pitt greeting me on the home page and then "personally" thanking me for my donation. That's what it was. (well, it didn't hurt at least ;) Do what you will (or won't) with this. I know money is tight for everyone right now, I just thought I'd pass the good word along.

Simple DK Stripe Hat

Oh. My. Stars. It's a FREE pattern! Yay! I made this hat for a friend of mine to match his snowboard pants. I made it out of acrylic yarn for several reasons. One: I didn't want him to have to worry about washing instructions, I've learned my lesson on this. Two: He's going to be wearing it in the snow, so it's bound to get wet at some point (even if he never washes it, ew!) and needed to be able to stand up to that. Three: For an acrylic yarn this is actually pretty soft! The double knit helps provide thickness without it being bulky, and still has quite a bit of stretch.

Simple DK Stripe Hat

Size: 20"(will stretch to fit 22")

Yarn:
MC: Cascade Cherub Aran (55% Nylon 45% Acrylic; 100g 240 yd) 1 ball in #24 (bright yellow)
CC: Reynolds Utopia (100% Courtelle Acrylic; 100g 225 yd) 1 ball in #353 (charcoal gray)

Needles:
US 8 (5mm) dpn
US 8 (5mm) 16" circular, or size needed to obtain gauge

Stitch markers
Yarn needle

Gauge:
4st. per in./6 rows per in. with two strands of MC held together in St st. on US 8

The double knit was kind of an after thought on this hat since the MC yarn is a little lighter weight than the CC yarn. I only used one strand of yarn for the ribbing (it curves in just a little at the bottom), but you could use two strands held together for a thicker rib.

CO 80 st. in CC on circular needles
pm and join
Work in K2, P2 rib for 6 rounds
Join in MC with 2 strands held together and knit for 9 rounds
Join in CC with 2 strands held together and knit for 3 rounds (break yarn)
Carry up MC and continue in St st. until piece measures 5.5 in.

pm every 16 st (use a different color stitch marker for the first one placed, this will be your new beginning stitch indicator)
Begin decrease round:
Row 1: *K to 2 st. before marker, K2tog, sm, ssk, repeat from * to 2 stitches before first marker placed.
Row 2: K around to 2 st. before first marker
Row 3: *K2tog, sm, ssk, K to 2 st. before marker, repeat from * to 2 stitches before first marker

Rep. rows 2 & 3; 7 times
Break yarn and draw through live stitches, pull tight and weave in all ends.

This is my first "translated" (from my crazy brain) knitting pattern so I hope it reads clearly. It hasn't been tested by anyone, but if you come across any errors while making it please let me know.

I hope you like my model, the hat was a little too big for Ray's head and R2D2 was more than willing to provide his dome.

Thanks R2!

I think I may have a problem.

So I've dreamed about a lot of things, but this was a first. I'm walking along a shoreline with a group of people (we just escaped some castle in the clouds where a monster kept trying to kill us. Those pesky monsters are always trying to do that), and we are walking in the VERY cold water that is lapping up on the shore that seems to be made up of fish tank gravel and our cat's "crystal" cat litter. So with every step I have frozen feet and little pieces of the "shore" jab into me. For some reason (that I'm sure only dream-logic can explain) the ocean in the cove we're walking around has a tarp over it. Kind of like the kind you put on your backyard pool to keep leaves and bugs from falling in it. Anyway, as I'm looking at my frozen feet walking across these jagged pieces of litter I notice a string float out from under the edge of the tarp. It's a beautiful, variegated burnt orange and forest green string in what looks to be a sockweight merino. I am intrigued and distracted by the fuzzy so I lift the edge of the tarp and follow the string to its' skein. As I lift the tarp I notice more floating strings of color attached to skeins. What do I do? I do what any self-respecting, fiber-obsessed yarn whore would do, I start grabbing these skeins of yarn and putting them in my sweater (conveniently oversized and not being affected by the fact that I'm wading in water). The people in my group see me doing this, so like good little sheep, they do it to. I remember the guy next to me (I don't recall who he was in the dream, but I knew for a FACT that he had absolutely NO interest in yarn) had a duffel bag (which, in the dream, was my old Nike duffel bag I used for laundry) and I asked him if I could use it to hold my yarn. He said no. Jerk. Anyway, so we're all gathering yarn from the sea and pulling this tarp back to reveal more treasures which seem to be warm, dry, and fluffy despite their origin. As I'm gathering I hear some people talking about why this yarn is in the ocean in the first place. Duh! Thou dost not ask about miracles from the Yarn Goddesses, thou only grabs with much fervor and glee. So it turns out that this yarn was on a freighter ship from Noro Yarns (even though I know I saw local and domestic handpaints in there) it crashed into the cove (no one was hurt), and instead of creating an oil spill it created a yarn spill. The company factors these "incidents" into their budget and therefore anything that was lost needn't be returned. Oh happy day! I remember retrieving a couple cones of cashmere worsted weight and almost crying. I remember showing them off to everyone that would appear, since this ocean somehow ended in a hotel banquet hall. And they would oooh and ahhh and I would pet the cones. Me and my messenger bag (ask and you shall receive) full of yarn were the happiest in the world. Then Sam head-butted me and tore me away from this utopia and now all I have are the memories of it.

I don't interpret dreams usually, but I wonder what this one is saying?

In Conclusion...

So, yes, we did talk. After much anguish and discussion, we were able to work things out. It will take a while for some of the wounds to heal, but given time they should mend. Thank you guys for your support, it's good to know that you'll stand by me even when I'm at my lowest.

This is a short post, I know, it's more just to let you know that I'm okay. I shall start posting about knitting again in a day or two, there are some things I need to catch the blog-world up on, as far as that goes.

Don't forget, Stitch n' Bitch is tomorrow night at Lindy's at 6pm. See you there!

How to be a horrible wife

1. Bring debt into a relationship started with debt.

2. Continue to spend money on things that are not going towards paying off that debt.

3. Decide to spend money (a considerable amount) on a permanent piece of art that your spouse thinks is "ugly" and "too big" but that you couldn't be happier about.

4. Don't be clear about the fact that you really want to get this piece of art and then the night before you are scheduled to have it done, get in a big fight about it. Make sure that you end this fight with both of you thinking that you are getting what you want. (you=art, spouse=no art) This can be best achieved by not continuing to talk about the subject and pretending that everything is okay.

5. Go in for your scheduled appointment which lasts 6 LONG hours without showing your spouse the final approved art until it's about to be started. You can do this easily with your camera phone since he is working and can't be there to offer ideas/object.

6. Go home afterward and immediately feel the tension created by you walking in the room. You can verify the tension created by offering to show your artwork to your spouse and see the loathing on their face as they grunt at it.

7. Hide upstairs in the bedroom, crying, because your spouse thinks that you don't care about his opinions at all. When that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, the reason that you weren't very forthcoming about the artwork was because you care so much about his opinion that if he were to say something negative about it, you'd talk yourself out of getting it. Even though YOU really liked it. You merely wanted to get something you like and enjoy it because YOU liked it. Unfortunately, it also happens to be permanent. So from now on, you'll look at this beautiful art and under it's beauty will lie this horrible guilt and frustration.

8. Avoid talking about all this, because you know it will end badly and avoiding confrontation is what got both of you into this position in the first place. Instead just sit at opposite ends of the couch, fighting back tears and hoping that it will all be okay. Which, of course, you know it won't be until you talk about it.

Denial is an evil and dangerous thing, it's also really easy to fall into. And I'm in pretty deep.

Let's Talk About C.E.X., Baby!

That would be Craftular Enhancement eXcursion, and that's what my day off yesterday consisted of. The adorable fabric you see pictured here is for a baby blanket I'm making for one of Ray's co-workers. Oh, and it was 50% off! So I got more than enough and I may make some burp cloths or something as well. The pattern (for said blanket) is via my friend Maura. The lucky recipient of this blanket is also going to receive an adorable knitted bear bonnet and most likely some booties as well. The yarn for that will be coming next week and I'll be posting progress pictures on those.

I also used the gift card I got from Ray's sister for christmas to buy some decoupage supplies and a plain box to decorate. I purchased this page-a-day pin-up calendar and I'm going to use the pictures from it decorate this box. It should be fun.
While we were out I also exchanged the Domiknitrix book I got from Jesse for the Knitting Nature book by Norah Gaughan. I thought a lot about it before I decided to exchange it, but the Dom book is more of a "starter" or "how-to" book and I already know "how-to". There are some great patterns in it, but I don't know how many of them I would actually make. I've been drooling over Knitting Nature ever since I saw it back in Sept.(?) I want to make almost every pattern (out of 35!) in it.
While I'm on the subject of books and using gift cards, I also received my order from Barnes & Noble yesterday. My brother gave me a $30 gift card and I decided to make the most of it by shopping their christmas clearance. I'm so glad I did! For $30 (plus $3 of my own money, but
free shipping!) I got How to Seduce a Ghost by Hope McIntyre, Khai of Khem by Brian Lumley, Wolfblade: Book One of the Wolfblade Trilogy by Jennifer Fallon, Dedication by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus, The Paths of Darkness Collection by R.A. Salvatore, and The Antichrist: A Criticism of Christianity by Friedrich Nietzsche. Wow, dats a lots a books! Some of the authors I've read other things by, others I have heard of but have never sampled, and others were judged by their cover. But all (but one) were less than $4 each, so it's totally worth the gamble. I have no idea when I'm going to be able to read all of these, I've already got a pile on my shelf waiting to be read, but that is why I love owning books. I can read them or put them aside whenever or as often as I want.

On a knitting related note, I have one of my Dad's socks done and am almost halfway through the second. For those not aware, this was one of the secret holiday projects I had going on and am obviously a little late with completion. It's ok, he doesn't mind. The pattern I used is the uncomfortably-titled Boyfriend Socks and is knit up in Knit Picks Risata in Navy on size 1 dpns. I ended up having to use 3 balls instead of the two I had initially ordered because I didn't pay attention to the yardage in the pattern. Go figure. Never fear, however, more is on the way! Hopefully these will be done next week.

So there you have it. I still need to get some plain brown flannel for the other side of the blanket, Hancock doesn't carry brown flannel. That seems weird to me. I'd like to work on that on Monday though, so that means shopping again this weekend.
That could be dangerous. ;)

People Know Me

They also know what I like, and that is more things to knit and knit with. The holidays were good to me this year. The book and calendar are from my secret santa at work (thanks Jesse!). The Lime & Violet Sasquatch Sock Yarn in Nuggies is from my friend Maura (Thanks!) and the Claudia Hand Painted Yarns in Eat Your Veggies (acquired through kpixie) is from my Mom, along with all the needles and that really cute sock blocker keychain (it came with a pattern to make socks that fit it!)





Speaking of my Mom, these are the socks I made for her, as modeled by me. She loved them and the fact that they are machine washable! My Dad's, however, did not get done. I'm actually going to have to order another skein of yarn to finish them (I did not pay attention to yardage. Bad Tina.) My dad got to see them in progress though and he really liked how they looked, so that is good.

Not all of my gifts were knitterly. From Ray I got the Philip Pullman "His Dark Materials" Trilogy (The Golden Compass is the first book in the trilogy) in a nice box set, and this really awesome wireless mouse for my laptop. He also fixed the CD drive on my laptop so that I can put music on it and he reinstalled/upgraded my OS to Tiger and basically made my computer run like new! He's so amazing.

My brother, Doug, got me a $30 gift card to Barnes & Noble which may go to knitting books, but I'm not quite sure yet because there are some "actual" books that I've had my eye on. We shall see.

Overall, it was a nice holiday. We went to my parents house on Christmas Eve, and were at Ray's sister's house for Christmas Day. She made us a really good dinner and sent us home with leftover's and wine.

Today, it was back to work and while we were quite busy at times I'm sure it was not even a fraction of the madness that was out in the "mall area". I'm so glad I don't work out there anymore. Tomorrow night is our work party at Chiante, a new Italian restaurant. It'll be fun to relax and eat with my co-workers and friends. And now I'm off to play with my new yarn and my new mouse. I should probably continue working on my Dad's sock too.

Happy holidays everyone, and to those of you who could not have a happy holiday this year I hope that, in the future, the happiness you experience more than makes up for the sadness you're experiencing now. My heart is with you.

Falling in Love and a Little Introspection

Ok, let's just ignore the fact that I have neglected my blog for the last 3 weeks. I know. I've actually written about three or four different posts in my head while at work or working on my holiday knitting. I need to figure out a way to post to my blog directly from my brain, without having to type. Can we get some people working on this please? (actually there probably already are)

Anyway, onto the reason I've set aside time to use my fingers for something other than knitting: The New Knitty!!!!!!!! Wow. I'm much more impressed with this issue than the last one. There is quite an extensive list of projects that I would like to make and it's going to take some real willpower not to start casting on while I'm in the middle of making gifts (1 down, 2 2/3 to go). Let me share with you my favorites. I have the perfect yarn (I think) and beads to make Ice Queen, I've always wanted to try entrelac so Quant is definitely on the list. Halcyon is gorgeous and involves ribbon (I'm a sucker for lace knit and ribbon), Stardust is just girly enough to be acceptable, Fair Isle Rapids would look great in a chocolate brown and lime or light blue, and Azure and Slippery are just the socks I'm looking for. And then there's Jeanie. Oh Jeanie. I haven't felt this way about a knitting pattern since......well, I don't think I've ever felt this way about a pattern. Love at first sight. This is the pattern that is going to take ALL of my willpower not to start. Look at it and TRY not to fall in love. If you're in the same boat as me and need to finish knitting holiday gifts, don't say I didn't warn you.

One of the cool things about this issue of knitty is that there are several designs from high school students. They are good designs too, Slippery is one. It's so great to see young people so excited and devoted to this craft. I wish that I had not been so concerned with avoiding anything I deemed "girly" when I was a teenager. My mom tried to teach me to sew, but I refused because "I'm not going to be a housewife, why do I need to know this?" Well, because I could have made all those "alternative" clothes that I wanted but couldn't afford or buy because the only clothing store in town was Wal-Mart. Instead, I learned how to piss off my parents, smoke cigarettes, get into trouble, and generally have a bad attitude. Skills, I have learned, that didn't really help me get anywhere. I'm not speaking with regret, however, because I know that due to several of these "skills" I came to move to La Crosse, and met the people I've met. I'm not that same person anymore (although I know my attitude is not always exactly sunny) and have learned a lot from being that person. I sometimes have to wonder though what kind of person I would be now if I was this person then. (got that?) All of this from an online knitting magazine. Hmm.

No pictures this time. It's late, and I need to sleep, not wait for photos to load. Besides, knitty's pictures are much better than any of mine anyway.

Why can't we all just get along?

So last night at knitting group I heard some really great news. The Wisconsin Library system (I'm sure this is true for other state's library systems too) has a digital download center where you can "check out" audio books for free (and in some cases are able to burn them to a cd!). I was soooo super excited about this feature, now I can catch up on my reading WHILE I knit!!! For FREE!! I went there right away and put several books on hold (since the ones I was interested in were already checked out) and was browsing around looking for more when I decided to look and see how this magical system works. Well, it's a good(?) thing I did. After reading up on the software you have to download (free) to work with this program it became quite obvious to me that this system only works with PC's (I have a Mac) and Windows Media Player and would not be be compatable with my iPod. GREAT!!!! @!%$#&*^^ing GREAT!!!

This is the only thing that the info page had to say on the incompatibility issue: "OverDrive, along with hundreds of online digital media providers, is hopeful that Apple and Microsoft can reach an agreement that would enable support for Microsoft-based DRM-protected materials on the iPod and Mac."

Yeah, so am I. However, with the track record between the two I don't foresee this happening any time soon.

To relate this to knitting somehow (because everything can be related to knitting) this reminds me of the long-standing feud of knitters and crocheters. Like Apple and Microsoft, there are many similarities between the two crafts. Both use a needle(s), of some sort, to manipulate yarn into something beautiful and/or useful. They may go about it different ways, but the effects are the same. Unlike Apple and Microsoft, knitters and crocheters can work together and co-exist to become items like this (my favorite being the brown cardigan). See what great things can come from working together? There will always be that undetermined weirdness between those of us that ONLY knit or ONLY crochet (I happen to do both and love the differentness and sameness of both skills), but deep down we know that we're in the same felted boat that is full of the the things we love, yarn and cool patterns.

This refusal to work together, while helping the corporation's bottom line, ultimately hurts the consumer. People are forced to choose, all of column A or all of column B. This doesn't just include computers, the dvd market is seeing a debate between Blu-Ray and HD dvd's. Neither one (read: corporation) wants to work with the other and as a result we are stuck with two formats that each have certain studios backing them. So consumers are forced to choose to buy a Blu-Ray or HD dvd player (and a big F-off to those that can afford to buy both. I can't afford to buy either). "But Tina" you say, "you don't need to buy either of these things. Just use a regular dvd player." Well, I do. And I shall continue to until my financial situation becomes something which can afford such a luxury. However, whether I have/can afford one is beside the point. The point is that these companies are so greedy, and so stubborn that they are absolutely not willing to "combine forces" and make a product that benefits both consumers and corporations. Agh.

Sorry for the rant. I'm sure I'll regret this post tomorrow (I'm not sure some of my arguments make sense), but I was just really excited about downloading audio books.

I'm going to go work off some of this frustration at the bar while listening to a Talking Heads cover band, Houses in Motion.