Knit Once, Purl Forever

Senioritis

This having a kid who is a Senior is a lot of work. I didn't knit a stitch last night because we spent the evening pouring over the OS's Senior photos and placing our order. It was fun and not so fun all at the same time. It's hard to make the final decision as to which poses to order and how many photos of each.

There were so many pictures and some of them were very similar. The final decision came down to things like hair placement, shirt creasing, eye squinting, and the ever important smile. Some of the smiles were very fake as they were taken before the OS loosened up and relaxed into the photo shoot.

The whole experience reminded me of that Friends episode, you know the one where Chandler and Monica have their engagement picture taken but Chandler keeps making those horrible faces. In the end, Joey winds up posing as the replacement groom in the photo with Monica instead of Chandler. All too often, a funny moment from an old sitcom serves as a frame of reference to a current event. Thing is, I don't currently watch any sitcoms. What ever am I going to use as a frame of reference for future events? I don't know, but I know what I'm not going to do.

I'm not going to find a replacement Senior for our pictures.

Whinefest '06

I think this post might be of the whiny variety, even though that is not necessarily my intent. After airing our dirty laundry, so to speak, in the last post it's difficult to step away from that tone. Or who knows maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

For one thing, someone cluttered up my favorite yarn-project picture -taking spot. It's my preferred photo shoot spot because of the natural lighting from the nearby window, but also because most of the time it's the only readily available, as in clutter-free, spot in the kitchen. So image my dismay when I found this resting on "my" spot: 

Exhibit A

Your eyes are not deceiving you. This BBQ-Pit was purchased right before the holidays via e-Bay by the Most Difficult Man for Whom to Shop.  Most difficult EVER! This is a known fact--the photo above is merely supporting evidence. If he wants something he just buys it; therefore, there is never anything he wants or needs. This makes him extremely difficult to shop for. I. Give. Up. The YS suggested giving the Hubby a lump of coal this year and I just might, especially if he tries to store his crap on "my" spot again!

In knitting news, I've been a busy little knitter.

Exhibit B

Exhibit B is the lacey throw I was knitting for a family member. Unfortunately, I decided the pattern was just a little too lacey and a little too feminine for the intended recipient. Enter Exhibit C:

Exhibit C

Exhibit C is this the Seed Stitch throw I'm now knitting said family member. It's simple and not the most creative of projects, but I think it will totally hit the mark for the intended recipient. Just don't expect to see a lot of progress pictures because this project just isn't all that exciting, which explains Exhibit D:

Exhibit D

Exhibit D is crew socks in Knit Picks Sock Garden yarn in the Star Gazer Lily colorway. I love this colorway--so cheery and fun! And these socks should land in the finished projects gallery in no time--a total "score" in my book!

And, last but not least,

Exhibit E

Exhibit E is the Practice Makes Perfect scarf from the Fiona Ellis book, Inspired Cable Knits. I'm probaby the World's Slowest Cable Knitter so I expect to push this project to the limits of the Red Scarf deadline, but I'm determined to make them both: the scarf and the deadline. I'm using Cascade Pastaza, which is quite wonderful in and of itself, but just not the yarn suggested or intended for this project. And this brings me to my next rant:

I think the art of finding an adequate yarn substitute for any given pattern is a talent to be envied. It's definitely not a trait that I possess as it is a real challenge for me and something I struggle with. The thing I struggle with the most is the fact that most of my yarn substitution adventures are brought about by necessity rather than choice. Most of the time, I would be perfectly happy to use the recommended yarn for a given pattern. Most of the time, this is not an option for me because either my local yarn stores do not carry the recommended yarn or they do not carry it in the amounts or colors I would like. More often than not, it is not available at all. Sometimes, such as in the case of the yarn recommended for the scarf above (Classic Elite Wings) it's not even available via the Internet, or not available in the colorway of choice anyway (red for the Red Scarf Project)...

So we substitute yarn and we tell ourselves that our second choice is perfectly fine, but is it really? How do we know that the resulting project is what was intended? Wouldn't it be nice to just once knit something as intended? Anyone else struggle with this?

And that concludes Whinefest '06.

Adult Content

Growing up, my parents brewed and sipped coffee all day long. Us kids were curious, of course, and often asked for a sip or a cup of the brown, syrupy substance that smelled so good. It was not to be as we were told that it would stunt our growth. "Coffee is for grown-ups," they would say.

It might have been the fear of stunting my already stunted growth, but I believed them then and I still don't even drink coffee today. I've never acquired the taste as I think it smells way better than it tastes. The bottom line is that it is for grown-ups. And that is something I am not.

Yes, I acknowledge the fact that I am an adult as in I'm definitely of age. But being a grown-up is something I've never felt that I am, nor is it something I've ever wanted to be. I associate growing up with growing old. And the Hubby is exactly the same in this regard. He doesn't drink the coffee either. He's fun loving and crazy most of the time. The not being totally grown-up thing is one of the many things we have in common and probably the reason we get along as well as we do.

Of course, there's a down side to all this: Our family consists of two children and two adult children and absolutely zero grown-ups. A grown-up would come in handy in such matters as home repairs and financial planning for said home repairs.

Case in point, the tree in the front yard is growing up into the power lines and another is trying to grow into the roof of the house. A grown-up would quickly deal with this situation. The Hubby and I bounce ideas back and forth unable or unwilling to act on anything.  He thinks we (most likely as in me) can just trim those pesky branches with our existing lame ass gardening tools. I think we should call in the Calvary in the form of a tree/shrub removal service. Each of us is really waiting for a grown-up to swoop in and save the day.

Maybe we should just drink the coffee already.