Sock Summit meltdown

I have been ruminating over Sock Summit for months.

When I first found out about it I really wanted to be a vendor. REALLY wanted to. I thought, what better way to get my name out than at the ultimate sock event? I kept trying to figure out how the hell I would get my gobs of yarn out to Portland (WHY did they have it in Portland, anyway?).

After months of thinking and wishing I had to admit it wasn't really practical right now. Maybe Sock Summit II will be in the middle, or on the Eastern side of the country. Something I could drive to.

Then I pondered whether I could go. The class list and teachers were nothing short of awe inspiring. I wanted to go SO bad. I coveted it. I wished. I talked to husband about it, but he asked me how much it would cost, I estimated. I thought it might be a pipe dream. Also it's the week before school starts. I didn't think he could get the time off.

I am certain that I said (more than once) "I can't go... can I? I really want to go." To which he replied "yeah, I don't see how" and "probably not".

Today we had the following conversation on chat:

Me: registration for sock summit is going on
it's so not fair
Him: I saw.
Me: I want to go SO bad
Him: What would it take?
Me: um, well someone to watch the kids
and, like $7-800 at least
and I would have needed to register half an hour ago
Him: When is it?
Me: August 6-9
Him: Did it fill that quick?
Me: it's half sold out now, yes, it did
are you seriously telling me I should go?
because, I've been SAYING I wanted to go for like 6 fucking months
Him: I know and I haven't been saying you shouldn't...
Me: GAH!
I have no idea what that means
Him: I'm checking to see if anyone is taking time off then...
You're going nuts at home...
Maybe you need a break.


NOW he tells me! PANIC!

Nothing like trying to figure out what classes you want to take of the classes that are still open, when you haven't prepared at all, or looked at the email with instructions on how to register because you didn't think you could go, while classes are literally disappearing while you look at the screens, and when you're already having a really bad and indecisive day when you can't even decide whether to have cereal or toast for breakfast (and are so wishy washy you have neither).

My friend Janet talked me through my panic attack, and helped me figure out that I could register for whatever I could get now, even if I wasn't sure if I could go. The most I'm out is $10 a class. So, I did.

I ended up getting a class with Amy Singer (Making the Next Monkey) and Meg Swansen (Elizabeth Zimmermann's Wearable Art Stockings), and also apparently registering twice for Spindle Spinning Basics (with Abby Franquemont, who's son and my daughter are having a fiber fair romance). Just when I was giving up on getting anything, the Amy Singer class reappeared (sweet!). Same with Abby Franquemont.

So, I guess I'm going to Sock Summit!

I think.

Hear Me Roar

So, you may recall my post from a few days ago, when my Pi shawl looked like this:

I'd decided that spring was here and it needed a gentle wash and re-blocking. Things were going great until a thread broke in the border. I believe Caitie actually broke it by jabbing the blocking wires into it too hard (no, that's not why she's in trouble).

After I'd finished the shawl last year I had an entire ball left (plus a few yards, which I can't find). So I'd passed it on to my friend Janet, who brought it over to me Friday afternoon so I could perform a little emergency surgery:

I pinned it all out first, to get a good look at the damage. Good light and steady hands are required.

One tiny broken thread, on a stretched out lace border. Really it could have been worse. It's merino, and single ply, so there's a fuzz to it, and it doesn't like to run to terribly far.

These pins are color coded. The ones in the top are marking the path of yarn in a place that isn't broken. The ones in the bottom are there for me to use as a guide to re-create the stitches that unraveled. First I wove the end of the new yarn in a good ways so it couldn't come loose. Then I started following the path that it was supposed to take, over this loop, under that one.

Behold!

I am awesome. I just performed miracle knitting surgery. Dude I rock.

That is unblocked, too. It's so good now I can't even find the spot where it was.

And now my shawl is all blocked and wonderful again. I am so amazed with my own ingenuity. Really.

Funny pictures to embarass my kids

A contraption Molly has created to reach leaves in trees. She was climbing our fence to get to the neighbor's leaves (because she ran out of leaves in our yard), but after getting in trouble for that enough times, she made this. She drags it around the yard (which isn't small)



Sean making pickle faces.



And Caitie cutting the grass. With scissors.

She is 11. And in really big trouble. The reel mower misses some grass, so it's getting out of hand. I'm making her cut it by hand.

Fuck.

Wrapping up the week

So Thursday wasn't awful, although I was frazzled from the rest of the week which sucked. There was a lot of jostling of schedules and driving and kids. Rob working late and Caitie having dance class. I talked my mom into taking the girls to dance while I took Sean to knitting. Molly apparently had a freak out for no particular reason. Then when we all converged on the parking lot while the knitters were switching from Borders to Cheesecake Factory (a big improvement I might add - Asian Pear Martini's and blueberry white chocolate cheesecake is an excellent way to wash a bad week off of you), Sean slipped in the car and split his head open pretty good. It bled for a long time (as heads tend to do), and it almost needed a stitch, but the doctor said since it was in his hair it wouldn't be worth the trauma. Liquid band aid stuff to the rescue.

BUT- there was the shawl, and that was GOOD.

Pattern is Sweet Honeysuckle Wrap Yarn is Baby Twist. Pictures and words cannot fully represent the awesomeness of this stole.











Believe it or not, I followed the pattern pretty much.

I did 36 repeats instead of 40 (if I had done 40 it would have definitely required an extra ball of yarn). I didn't do a gauge swatch, since it's a stole and all, and my gauge is usually pretty average. This is quite a bit bigger than the pattern measurements call for (which is quite alright with me, it's the perfect size), and I added an extra eyelet to the border (yo, k2tog). That's it (that's practically nothing, right?)

Cutting it close

So I know it sounded like that last post was my Friday the 13th, but actually, it was just Tuesday.

The rest of the week sucked too, but not as bad as Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday the kids had half days, and it got cold again (below freezing) after a few days of light jacket weather. I hate when that happens. It is clearly just mother nature faking you out.

Also, on Wednesday I found nits in my hair. Ugh. Molly sometimes uses my towel after taking a bath, so I assume that happened sometime over the weekend. And I really wrenched my back nit-combing Molly. So now I got to do it to myself too. Fun times. Also apparently lice treatment makes my hair curly.

Someone in the comments wanted to know if anyone in Molly's class had lice. No, not that we know of. The nurse checks the whole class. Basically no one we know has had lice but us. It must be something not here though. I can't understand it.

I got basically nothing done work wise. There was massive amounts of laundry. Really massive. And even when it was warm and lovely I couldn't hang it on the clothesline because it's the heat from the dryer that kills the eggs. There was whining and screaming and normal kid behavior, but more of it than normal because they were home instead of school.

Oh, and my favorite was when one of my friends told me that it was time to give the girls short hair cuts. I pointed out that it doesn't matter how long your hair is, and she said it's easier to keep it clean when it's short. I said it doesn't matter how *clean* it is. She keeps going on about "clean". Molly's hair is clean. MY hair is clean. Sheesh. She might as well have just said me and my kids are filthy slobs. Thanks. I kept trying to give her ways out of it and she kept making it worse. I swear, it doesn't matter how often you wash your hair. You can't wash lice out of your hair.

The only thing keeping me going for 2 days was the purple shawl.

I'd been working on it (almost) monogamously for about a week, and it should have been done on Tuesday.

I saw the sample of this stole at the Alpaca with a Twist open house last fall and fell in love with it. It's a Sharon Winsauer pattern called Sweet Honeysuckle Wrap. And was lovely. Soft, and drapy and wonderful.

So I was down the the second half of the border, and damn if I wasn't going to finish that thing. It was going to be the one good thing in my day.

When I had 1 long side left I started to become deeply concerned about the amount of yarn I had left. It should have been enough, because the pattern calls for 7 skeins of yarn, and 40 repeats of the lace pattern. I stopped at 36 repeats because it was already quite long.

When I got half way through the side I looked at my ball again and got really worried. I weighed the ball. 18g. I knit 1 point, and weighed the ball again. 17g. 17 points left. I knit 2 more points. 15g. ooo this is going to be close. I started to sweat it quite a lot. Also, I had a bit of beer (the border pattern is easy). I started knitting tighter. Trying to will the yarn to go further.

12:20 AM I made it. I had this much yarn left:


Damn that was close.

I had to stay up late to block it because I was determined to wear that baby to Thursday knit night. Sean woke up and came and snuggled with me for a bit before we went back to bed. He came out as I was finishing blocking. His comment: "Wow, Mommy, that sure is a skinny blanket."