Marie Grace Designs

This is you brain...

this is your brain on cold medicine.

Well actually that’s my brain everyday but there for a while I had something to blame it on.

That concoction is actually what my 7 year old came up with to keep himself busy for part of the afternoon yesterday. Yea, I know, he should be outside playing in the dirt or something but he’s much happier in the kitchen mixing citric acid, dish soap, baking soda and food coloring. I wonder if Newton’s mom worried as much as I do.

So anyway, now that most of the cobwebs have cleared I’ve found myself busier than ever. Our school year is just about finished but instead of taking a break I’m collecting materials for next year. Its better to do it now while everything is still fresh in my mind and besides, if I get everything under control now I’ll be able to relax for a few weeks instead of feeling like I have a bunch of stuff to do before school starts again. We work lightly through through the summer, keeping up with our math and going over anything anybody had trouble with. Just an hour in the morning most days. The kids did ask for a “cool” science kit to play with so I ordered a the Science in a Nutshell Microscopic Worlds kit. That should do it.

Now onto some knitting....

The orange twist is growing. The back is complete and the front is done to the neck shaping. A little more on the front and 2 sleeves and it will be a done deal.

I’ve had this wool squirreled away with a plan but had been working on other things so it got set aside. Its for the little chemist and he knew I had it so the other day he says “Mom, where’s my ocean sweater?” He picked this yarn himself because he said it looked like the ocean to him. I felt bad that I had been working on everything except his ocean sweater so I dug it out and got a good bit done.

By the way, do you remember me yapping about the wonderful Llamajama Alpaca I used to make that little pink cardigan? Well, this is Llamajama wool. Awesome colors and its fat, squishy single ply (think Lopi only much softer because its merino and its not nearly as thick, more of a worsted weight). Great yardage too, this sweater is about a kids size 8 and I’m only on my 2nd hank. I also have a few more hanks waiting...some cool turquoise, some bright coral and some candy pink.

You can find it by clicking the Llamajama link in my side bar.

Me being me I can’t stop at 2 projects (or 2 or 3) so here’s one more. I intentionally planned a rather plain design because I intend for it to be a basic blank canvas for some great embroidery.

So I've had Spring Fever.....

No, really….it’s spring and I’ve had a fever of 102. It hit me on Mother’s Day (thanks Murphy).

I’m feeling much better even if I do sound like I’m gonna hack up a lung every now and then.

I don’t have any pictures to show but just wanted to make a quick post so nobody thought I fell off the face of the planet. I’m getting back into my normal day to day and catching up on some things. There’s also a few new developments yarn-wise but I haven’t really gotten anything done.

I need to get a pattern for the Jo Sharp Desert Cotton sweater worked out and get some good progress made on various other things.

I’m getting my groove back so stay tuned!

She's got a case of the wiggles.

Well I tried desperately to get some decent pictures of Tater in her new sweater but she’s not in the mood to sit still today. The camera winds her up anyway so it was a losing battle. Here’s what I did get. I’ll try again later.

The yarn is Jo Sharp Desert Garden Aran Cotton (cotton/micro-fiber blend). Super-duper thick and squishy. It knits up fast because of the thickness. It really only took me a little here and there over a few evenings to do this sweater. Its got a great smooth feel and is super soft. I’ll definitely use it again.

I guess I’ll spend some time charting and fiddling with design ideas on paper until this poison ivy lets up.

The things I get myself into.

I am by no means a gardener but its inevitable that I will have a day or so during the spring when I have an overpowering urge to plant something. The kids love to sprout seeds and make a little garden. Last year we had pepper plants growing in the flower box out front. A bit of a conversation piece. This year they are sprouting catnip, baby watermelons and gourds.

Of course, while we were shopping for yet another Burpee Ultimate Sprouting System I got that planting urge and picked up 2 pink hydrangeas to plant myself.

So we did the add water and watch the compressed dirt pellets puff up thing and the kids stuck their little seeds in neat little rows and we taped the plastic lid to the top so the cat won’t dig the whole the thing up and spread it around the dining room.

I went out and made like a normal suburban housewife and planted my pink hydrangeas. Apparently I also had a run-in with some invisible poison ivy.

Last night I woke up several times with my right hand burning and itching to beat all hell. I kept going back to sleep trying to ignore it. Eventually I couldn’t stand it anymore and got up to see what was going on.

So there I am at 2am standing in the horrible lighting in the upstairs bathroom looking at my hand that is surprisingly swollen and red and angry looking. Poison ivy. The worst of it around the ring I wear on my right ring finger. Thats what kept waking me up. My finger is swollen and that ring is damn near cutting off my circulation. That ring. The one that nobody even notices anymore but me. The one from the husband that isn’t here anymore through no fault of our own.

I never take that ring off. I switched it from my left hand to my right when I met Mac Daddy but thats as far as it goes. Its the last and only connection. Its an understanding. Its what keeps me at peace.

People sometimes ask how you do it. Movies make it look all romantic. The wife lovingly gazing at a framed picture. Bullshit.

Life goes on and so do you unless you want it to run you over. You and your kids. But you come to an understanding. You find what gives you peace. That ring gives me peace. It says we are still connected in some way. It says that we are okay now but I haven’t forgotten.

I didn’t want to take that ring off but I was in serious pain. My finger was throbbing. I soaked it in cold soapy water and finally managed to get the ring off. The physical relief outweighed the emotional grief for a second or 2. So there I am in the badly lit upstairs bathroom at 2am crying because my hand is throbbing and I took my ring off. And I’m alone.

Nobody else will notice that I took the ring off. I’ll have a regular day and do laundry and hang out with the kids. But I’ll have a cloud hanging over me all day or however long it takes for this poison ivy to let up so I can put my ring back on. For me its like being lost because its our deal. I live my life, I raise the kids, I allow myself to be happy again and to take a chance. But I wear that ring. I wear it for me and for him.

Mac Daddy is coming home from his trip a few days early (yippee!). He’ll be home tomorrow. He’ll notice. He’ll notice because he understands and thats what makes it okay. I’ve missed him so much. Wives are suppose to miss their husbands when they are away but there’s a level of some weird thing that not everybody understands. Missing not just the person you share your life with but missing the person who gave it back to you. The person who took on all the mess and made it okay to wake up in the morning and be happy because there is laundry to be done and groceries to be bought and a baby crying. That its okay to be happy and want more.

Ya know, I swore to myself I'd never air dirty emmotional stuff here but I've come to realize that its just a part of who I am. Its what makes me cynical and what makes me thankful. Its what makes me hold on so hard and what makes me keep people at a distance. Keeping it all in the dark just makes it harder to live with.

I’m gonna walk around a little scatter brained all day between the lost feeling of the old and the thought of him coming home tomorrow. He took the rest of the week off work so I’m sure there will be at least one impromptu trip to somewhere cool. He’s like that. He’ll drag us all out somewhere and we’ll have fun and we’ll pick on each other and watch the kids run around and we’ll hold hands. The poison will still be growing in the yard and the laundry will be at home in a forgotten pile. But it’ll be okay because we’ll be holding hands and the boys will be making fart jokes and the girls will be looking for flowers.

Thats how you do it.

That, and you knit.

"Mom, I really need a new book"

If there’s one thing I love to hear its “I need a book”. I’m an avid reader myself and I am the first one to grab the truck keys when a trip to the book store is in need. We go to the library a good bit too but honestly, I have just as big of a book problem as I do a yarn problem. If I get a book from the library they will expect me to give it back. They won’t appreciate the notes I scribble in the margins either.

So yesterday we went to the bookstore in search of a few more books in the series The Big Guy is reading. Of course, everybody left with something new. We got everything from Dora the Explorer to dragons to Fighter planes. Oh, and some knitting. Some Elizabeth Zimmermann to be exact.

Its actually quite rare for our local B&N to have anything good in the knitting section. I always have to check when we’re there though, just to make sure I’m not missing something. Yesterday they happened to have a new copy of Knitting Without Tears. Its not that I cry over my knitting, its just that I like books and I love EZ.

Last night after the kids were all tucked in I crashed into the big recliner with my blankie and my new book. I must say that I don’t always agree with EZ. I prefer sweaters from the top down rather than the bottom up. I don’t care for garter stitch (I have visions of a Tomten jacket done up in something other than garter). But I read EZ because of the knitting calm she somehow exudes even through her writing.
I read some bits and pieces and snuggled in the recliner wishing I wasn’t too tired to knit. Yup, me, too tired to knit. I seriously think I would have put my own eye out if I had attempted to pick up the needles. I’m not feeling too guilty though because the back of the orange twist, as well as a few inches of the front, are done.

The gansey diamonds and cables I swatched last week have moved to another yarn I like better and I’ve also started something green but we’ll talk about them another time.

These are our socks.

I’m not showing you my kids’ feet to be fun or neat or silly. I’m showing you because I have a confession to make.

I don’t knit socks.

I never really thought about it too much until our monthly Knit and Chat at the LYS last month. There I was sitting at the table (I love our table because its round....ya know, the whole knights of the round table thing) and when I looked around at what everyone was working on I was literally the only one who wasn’t knitting a sock. I began to wonder if I had screwed up my calendar and accidentally showed up on some special sock night. I truly felt like I was doing something wrong. Like I should maybe slide what I was working on under the table so nobody could see the non-sock-dom of my knitting. Maybe sneak over to the sock yarn shelves and grab a ball that looks good and slink back to the table and hope nobody saw me.

I don’t think I have an aversion to sock knitting. In my blog wandering and Knitty visiting I’ve seen lots of really cool socks and have paused to consider the possibilities. For some reason thats as far as it goes.

Its not that I can’t knit socks because I have. I even did a pair with fair isle cuffs a few years ago.

Its not that DPNs scare me because I use them all the time for sleeves on my raglans.

Its not for the lack of cool sock yarn. I mean, with names like Vesper and Socks That Rock how is it that I’m not mired in the stuff?

Maybe its the fact that around here socks are something to be tracked down, sorted out, and bleached in mass quantities. By the time we got to kid #4 I had pretty much given up on cutsie socks. No more frilly socks, socks with critters and characters or socks that actually coordinate with an outfit. We had completely institutionalized our sock purchases. If they are all white they can all be washed and dried in one load. If they can be purchased in bags of 10 pairs or more I’m all for it. When they get holey I just throw out the holey ones and buy another bag of new ones that are just like the old ones.

There are some socks in the house that aren’t white and bought by the bag load. The girls each have a few pretty pairs to go with whatever and Mac Daddy has socks for work that are appropriate for the professional attire he is forced to wear. Other than that I just can’t justify cool socks, at least, not around here.

So, will I be banished from the realm of knittingness? Will I be persecuted for my lack of sock yarn? Will there be whispers behind me.....

“I hear she doesn’t knit socks!”
“You don’t say!”
“Oh, my!
“And she calls herself a knitter!”

Am I allowed to buy Koigu even if I don't intend to knit socks with it? Really, Koigu is gorgeous bit I'm afraid I'll be asked for my Sock Knitter's ID card if I try to purchase some.

Maybe I should knit one sock as a safety measure. I could keep it in the top of my knitting bag sort of dangling out the top so its always noticeable. That way it would just be assumed that I do indeed knit socks and I would never be outright questioned and therefore never feel the urge to run and hide while in the presence of other knitters.

Whine.

So Mac Daddy is on his way to the airport headed for Canada. On top of that 2 of the kids have colds. They aren’t down for the count but they are miserable enough to wander around sounding like their heads are stuffed with cotton balls. Blah.

We did have a nice weekend. We took the crew to a local Nature center and walked the trails around the lake checking out some native wildlife. Turtles, frogs, assorted birdies and some pretty flowers. There was a station to play with pond critters and a visit from a Great Horned owl that had been raised by a wildlife rehab. Very cool.

I must admit I’m not feeling very chatty. I’ll feel a bit better once I hear from MC and know he’s safe on the ground in Canada. Til then I need to stuff some cold medicine into the kids and try to eek out a little math or history reading before they crash from the effects of the cold medicine. I’m guessing it will be a rather quiet day.

I did manage to make some progress on the orange twist project last night. Its coming along nicely. I’m trying really hard to stick with it and not wander off to swatch with that nice green cotton I brought home last week.