A terrible traveler (some swearing content ahead)

I hate road trips. Nothing about piling five children into the Suburban, driving for literally days on end, staying in less than immaculate accomodations, and subsisting solely on McDonald's appeals to me. (Well, okay, the forced knitting time will be useful. But that's it.) Add in an additional stop, another night in a different town, ten hours round trip from where the journey was to end, and I'm a very cranky Cami. Also, if you are an "inn" in the middle of God's forgotten back pasture, take some decent photos of your rooms, for fucksake. The sorry excuses for "Theme Rooms" are pathetic. I'm going to chance the local Super 8 or whatever passes for travel accomodations in back-asswards Iowa.
This was supposed to be a chance to "show the kids" to their great-grandmas, get a visit in with my cousins and aunt, see the 'rents and siblings, but it's all such a freaking hassle I'm ready to go lay down in front of a train. Husband has thoughtfully suggested just buying packages of t-shirts, socks, and underwear for the chirruns... I just need some air, a light at the end of the tunnel, an easy way out of the packing stress for this family of seven. Oh, right. I forgot. Xanax. And toothbrushes. Whew!
Blogging will be spotty in the upcoming week, though I may grovel successfully enough for Melly to take pity on me and guest-blog. Must go for now, as there is still too much 'activity' awaiting my attention. Latah, knittas. C

Falling off the wagon

Due to technical difficulties, yesterday's post was cancelled. It seems the fan in our home computer kicked into over-drive and I shut it down before anything could melt, or however it is that computers commit hari-kari. I spent the evening getting a sock onto needles, and holding a very big, almost three-year-old boy while we watched Disney's "Cars" for the umpteenth time this week. So, with the home computer on the fritz, I'm left with trying to post from the shop. Not the easiest thing in the world to do, as the children are tag-teaming me. It was bill-paying day (thanks go out to blogless-Rob for mailing them for me) and the kids' can sense my vulnerability. They've made a game out of it, with extra points for the crashes from the back room that make me jump out of my skin.



I have a deep list of Things That must Be Done this evening after leaving here. Getting keys cut, returning a (kinda gross) cookbook that I'd planned on putting in Maddie's Easter bag... she's getting craft books, instead. I don't think spinach-puree brownies are anybody's idea of 'healthy food' at Becher Haus. I know I don't want to eat those kinds of experiments.



UPS Guy just brought the new Opal sock yarns in the 'Rendevous' collection. Yum-o, I tell you. So much fun waiting to happen. And who doesn't love a dude in brown bearing cardboard boxes?

Oh, Happy Day

Thanks for all the well-wishes on my birthday. Tonight I got to go on a date with Herr Becher, courtesy of Melly. She volunteered. I know. And I don't think she was even heavily medicated when she made the offer. Things went well for her and the kids... no fires, broken bones, or temper-tantrums. Things went pretty swell for me and the man, too. A nice, quiet restaurant with a most excellent fillet mignon, and afterwards we went to a bookstore. Alone. I shopped without a two-year-old pulling at my clothes. I browsed without having to urgently find a bathroom for a six-year-old boy. I got to look at books of my own choosing, without having to stop and explain for the eleventh time that we're not buying Pokemon comics today. It was blissful, and I can't thank that tall gal enough for the "time out".

Monday night was "date night", too. RedRhonda and Melly took me out to dinner and a flick. Downtown. I never go there because getting into the parking garage at Circle Center Mall freaks my frack out. All garages do, actually. Odd, since the mister used to work in the parking garage at UWM (Milwaukee, not Madison. Neither of us could drink enough to survive attending UW Madison.) Anyhow, we saw"Juno" and I loved it. The snappy dialogue, the selfless way the situations were handled and the evolution of the characters were all delightful. It comes out on DVD in April. Be sure you get you some.

Something else you need to get is the book "Itty-Bitty Nursery" by Susan B.Anthony Anderson. It is so chock-full of gorgeous baby and toddler knitted toys and gew-gaws I'm amazed I can even lift it. We (sorta) go past Madison next week on our 'world tour 2008'... is there a stalking session in my future? Sadly, there really isn't time, but the author seems like my kind of people. She has four children and still manages not only to be creative, but she's got two published books. There's a cupcake hat, knitted peas and carrots on a grand scale, a knitted tea set... too much yarny goodness to mention here. I love this book. Go buy it. I don't care that you're in your jammies, and neither will the book seller... hurry. Then tell me what you think.

p.s. The injury was that a friend's cat, who has always been anti-social (and therefore fun to antagonize) finally got her digs into my arm. The real problem was she didn't re-open her mouth as she tried to get away after chomping my forearm, leaving me with some deep puncture wounds and 'tissue trauma' (ie: substantial bruising). I don't think Ballou will need a rabies shot, and the tetnus was more because it's been decades since my last one. The Augmentin is also a "better safe than sorry" regime, because cat bites can be super-icky if not treated. All is well here, though, and the tendon will be healed up around the same time the bruising goes away.
p.p.s. Even "injured", I finished the sock and will start pinto-pony the second part tomorrow. Yay, me.

Wasn't exactly a day off...

I had so much running around to do, and a surprise doctor's appointment, complete with grody medicines and a tetnus shot (ick), and knit-night... I'm too tired to type and I just want to go home. Type at y'all latah.

Not done yet

To mom: Here's a preview of your 'pinto pony' sock(s). As it is my birthday today, I suppose I should thank you for the monumental efforts you made to get me here... I know the 'back labour' was extremely uncomfortable, as was the ensuing eighteen years of rearing trauma which we both were forced to endure. I know you love the Golden Child best, but I am still claiming my birthright and first dibs on the contents of your jewelry box... all you get are these crappy socks. Thanks, mom. C

Where'd I leave my tiara?

I was hoping to have a finished sock to photograph, but even after sitting through another one of the spouse's movie picks, I'm still probably three inches away from finished. Perhaps tomorrow. Except I'll be pretty busy turning 38, so you might have to look at an incomplete 'pinto pony' sock, after all.

Things (which I again mis-keyed as "thongs") look a bit different in the shop. Rob brought in some frames and foam board and we stapled stuff to them. I got do all the tacking, and she didn't flinch too much. It's a much-needed dash of color atop the fabric cupboards... if I could just get people to look up. Obviously the subtle approach isn't working. A few (or eleven) more displays are required, to show off the variety of fabrics. I knew the effort was worth it when Deb said "ooh, is this new?" to several of the Amy Butler fabrics. (The new stuff doesn't come in till next month. That 'moving it around' thang works great!) Fabric as art. It looks brilliant, and I'm thankful that Miss Robin is so good at lighting a fire under my butt. Kind of tough to say no when she shows up with all the supplies and all I have to do is climb a ladder.

Okay, even though I am "Queen of all I Survey", the laundry still beckons and the kids are up waaay past their bedtime. They don't know it yet, but I'm dragging them out tomorrow for "breakfast with Mom", and then they get to come home and finish my birthday gift, entitled "clean your rooms if it kills you". I may call and order a cake for Wednesday... got a new lead on a baker in the area. It's cake. Is cake ever truly bad? How bad can it be? Don't answer that. It's not E&L cake... I'm scared. (insert plaintive Southern wail and knuckle-bite) Till tomorrow, poodles. C

The road less traveled

Actually this road sees a lot of action, but this was my view of last night's drive home. You can still make out the center line. This morning it was more trecherous, with last night's blowing and drifting of the snow. Snow. I can't remember the last time there was anything but high winds and knee-deep mud for my birthday (just two days away!). I'm telling myself it's like frosting from heaven, albeit without all the yummy sugar and butter.

Speaking of frosting, here's some Birthday Yarn, courtesy of Mandi (who just got on Ravelry today. Yay, Mandi!) She found this at the fiber fest up in northern Indiana yesterday. I'm looking forward to the one here in Franklin later in the spring. In the meantime, I've got this glorious, somewhat aquatic-looking yarn to fondle. I've already wound it and split it out for socks. Naturally. Gotta go for now. Latah, knittas. C

Knits & Pieces

I braved the sleet to find myself alone. Not a soul has darkened the doorway all day long. It's now almost two-thiry, the snow is still falling, and I've done all my paperwork for the day. Time to play with these blocks. Granted they don't look like much now, but they're embryonic 'pineapple' blocks. Down here you can see them with some random socks/yarn I had to burp from the knitting bag to get to the quilt blocks. I really need to organize that particular black hole.

Down here you'll see the new "Circus" fabric from Felicity Miller. I didn't get the whole collection, and of the six bolts I ordered, only five have arrived. Isn't it so darling and retro? I heart it.

The yellow fabrics are shot through with brighter pink/fushia, where the ivory fabrics are pale pink and orange. The aqua and lime coordinate fabrics are sweet and mix happily with either colorway. Once the micro-dots get here, I plan on making a sample quilt using the Lakehouse green/aqua dots with these newest additions to my weird cloth menagerie.

The good, the bad, and the ennui continues

New babies (Yay, Naomi!!!) needing blankets. Socks on needles, wanting attention. Children slacking on their math studies. Same children building a box-fort and staging all-out territory wars over it... during open hours. It's never a good sign to be reaching for the chill-pills before you've eaten lunch, but that's the way it was today. As much as I dread the long road trip ahead, it's almost a relief to not have to worry (for that one week) that my kids' shinanigans will get me kicked out of my lease. The winter drags on, spirits are sinking, and another storm is predicted for Saturday. I'm stocking up on hot chocolate, sweeties, and freshly washed wool socks, along with all the Mister's favorite mixers. Is it nutty to be praying for a "snow day"? Off to knit while trying to get youngest tyrant to fall asleep. I hope you're all having a more relaxing evening than I am. C

Cheater post (thanks, G!)

Popped over to Gaylen's blog and found this, so naturally I had to have a go for myself. I'd gotten so used to the usual "virgin attendant at a sacrifice" meaning, this little bit of hoo-doo with the letter-play was fun. And a welcome break for y'all, from having to read my regular drivvel.

What Camilla Means

You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. (yes, I like to call them "survival skills") You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. (Melly calls it bossy, and she blames 'Boris' entirely) You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. (this bit was pretty spot-on) You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. (Xanax, duh.)

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Really, if you know me, you know I cannot be both "tightly wound" (which I am) and "relaxed, chill, and go with the flow" (hardly ever, unless there is a food bribe involved), but I am one of those pesky Pisces...

Read an amazing book this evening. As a home school mom, I'm obligated to pre-read the books we push at the children. Tonight's read was "Gathering Blue", by Lois Lowry. Good stuff. I might have to do a 'read-aloud', though I suspect the boys would get fidgety... not enough blood and guts for their taste. The six-year-old dragged home a fine collection of those awful 'Goosebumps' books. At this point I'm willing to let it go, because we just want him interested in the written word. I'm getting him a copy of the 'Dangerous Book for Boys' for the Easter bag. The baskets have been put aside for the year, as this is the first year we'll be on the go for Holy Week. I'm frightened enough at being held captive with five kids for hour after hour , without having to worry about them trashing their Longaberger Easter baskets. (I just did a tally... we're looking at about 32 hours of travel time in the course of the week. The Xanax is already packed.)

Sorry for the cheat post, but I still have laundry chores, and more books to pre-read, if I'm going to keep pace with the eldest larval-stage bookworm. Today was a bit of a booger,and I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep... hopefully with none of today's headache form yesterday's "adjustment". I'm sooo not into getting things cracked. The lower back pain is strangely gone, though. I'm supposed to have another go next week. I may just chicken out, if this head/neck ache persist. Or take to the bottle. (Oh, either. Bourbon, Xanax... it's all good.) Latah, knittas.

Nothing to see here

Attempts were made to show you the terrifically painstaking baby-quilt-top-in-progress, the "petit l'orange" quilt (though if someone wants to e-mail me the French word for duckling, the working title may change)... however... it is late in the afternoon, the light is all wrong for capturing the deep orange and palest duck-egg blue of the fabrics, and the tiny smidges of butter yellow and tomato red just, well, how do you spell ppffft? Add more spitting and that's about what I said. Okay, there were more expletives, but mostly directed at myself for not thinking ahead. I have decided to make one pass around the twelve blocks daily, unless I have to rip out a seam. That's pretty much a free pass to quitsville for me, unless I want to risk having to haul the whole shebang out into the yard and set it on fire. I don't really have the temperment to be a patchworker, but the narcissist in me lives for the oohs and aahs. Isn't that why we do what we do? If no one ever got excited about your craft, would you still do it?
I'd still knit. I'm a glutton for a good many things, but a fine yarn running through my fingers and growing, stitch by stitch, into a Useful Thing is and will always be an enourmous thrill for me. The patchworking, I'm not so sure about. If no one ever took notice, my quilts would probably look like this, and this, just simple makey-dos, without fussiness. Pretty fabrics laying side by side, no Olympic piecing, no agonizing over color theory. Simple quilts and hand knitted socks could keep me occupied forever. My fear is that one day I'll look up and realize I've become a dinosaur, clutching my Rowan magazines the way some sixty and seventy sometings hoarde their 'Workbasket" mags. This is why I've decided to make a concentrated effort to expand my crafty horizons (cr*ch*t and paper-piecing are on the list) to postpone my inspiration's expiration date.
Must be off to knitting soon. Be well. C

The day's loot

DSCN1740
Originally uploaded by clementinesdrygoods

Nothing much to blog about today. I had a handful of coupons for the big box sewing store, so these books came home with us. Apparently Madeleine is taking up cr*ch*t, as she is terribly fond of the amigurumi 'creatures'. I've ordered in a good supply of hooks, in case this is more than a temporary fad. Of course, I thought fun fur scarves couldn't last long, but oh, my how those novice knitters resist moving on to bigger (or, as with socks, smaller) and better things.

DSCN1743
Originally uploaded by clementinesdrygoods

I also laid the quilt blocks out on the bed. I am not impressed with the color play in the "turning twenty" quilt. At this point I could either turn it into a few baby quilts, or forge on, and stitch it together as a full/queen size top to mail to my quilter. Ack. To take the edge off the big quilt dilemma, I've sliced up some of my Lakehouse mini dots and some Amy Butler seed dots and am constructing a baby quilt. The prominent color is pure, unadulterated orange. I'm calling it "petit l'orange" ... the seed dot fabric background is "duck-egg", but "duck l'orange" seemed like a mean name for a baby blanket.
Must go chase the children to their toothbrushes now. Latah, knittas.

You are too kind... all of you.

Thanks for the nice comments on my wordless post. I wasn't being lazier than usual, but yesterday was a busy day, and upon returning home, I slipped into some sort of coma. Tonight is early-to-bed night at Becher Haus, as Herr Becher has to crawl out of his slumber at four in the morning. I know. It sucks to be him. My big plans are to sit in front of the telly, drinking decaf iced tea, watching season one of "Dexter" and waiting for Eli to pass out. I will also be knitting on a sock, most likely. Possibly I will also be designing little lady clothes, as I went to the Matilda Jane trunk show this evening and they have almost nothing in my daughters' sizes. It dries up after a size eight (though they claim to go to ten... ha!), which is Lilly's "now" size. I'm thinking of buying a serger, even though I know zilch about garment constrution. Any helpful advice on makes/models of machine to get are appreciated much. I will botch the whole mission, if left to my own devices, and anything that uses four (or more) spools of thread at a time is, in my opinion, not to be trusted. I'm feeling a little run-on-y tonight.

I'm thinking lately about walking. Just thinking about it (geeze, Melly, stop hyper-ventilating)... like I'd ever exercise on purpose. I did walk over to the toy shop for the 'fashion show', but as it's a total of a block and a half, I didn't think it counted. I couldn't have gotten a better parking space, anyway. Gaylen's post about getting back on the healthy-wagon has me pondering what to do about my post-cesarean belly flop, made worse by having three more kids after the two c-sections, and a healthy appetite for unhealthy food. Gastric by-pass would render me bald with poor skin tone, those alli tablets are singularly unpleasant for innocent by-standers, and that pretty much leaves me with... having to be a grown-up. The kind of person who eats salads for dinner, takes the dog for a drag, and doesn't eat a bag of Reisens while knitting a scarf. I do not currently fit that profile. Just pondering. Not commiting to anything yet, and drastic changes never stick. I'm seeking inner-motivation that will really work. Perhaps an Audi Q7, if I lose the poundage? It makes my heart go pitty-pat. I wanty one sooo bad. Hmmm, I'd have to sell one of the kids to get one... or sell the house... but can you just imagine? I almost wet my pants when I saw it. That's the kind of bribery it takes to motivate me. I think I'll just wear my big-girl panties awhile longer, whilst plotting to commandeer an Audi showroom when (not if) those pretty babies are finally for sale in the U.S. market. Hmmm.

Scarf, finally