kittens love shawls

Oh, who am I kidding? Kittens love yarn. Period. I finally weaved in all the ends and sewed on the buttons to the shawl I am giving my mother in law for Christmas. There is a buttonhold on the other side so that the shawl can be fastened and adjusted to the discerning taste of the wearer. When I spread the shawl out on the floor, my cat Zoe felt compelled to pose with the shawl. I believe she was under the impression that I was taking pictures of her and that the shawl was just a background to bring out her loveliness. The yarn is done in Trendsetter's sesamo and its really a lovely yarn even though you cannot tell it from the pictures. Remember, Amy (www.finerskeinsinlife.blogspot.com) is the photographer, not me. She is, however, not much of a blogger. We love her anyway.
I'm attempting to have a bit of a low-key day. I work the weekend and my hat-wearing son has his piano recital tonight. When I went to pick him up from his father's house yesterday, my ex-husband's wife decided to verbally attack me about a bug she has up her butt in front of my children. I told her that I did not want to discuss things in front of the kids, but she persisted, and my humanness got the best of me after a bit and I had a few words to say to her as well. This just provoked her rage even more and at one point she was literally in my face, her nose touching mine, screaming at me call me everything but a child of God. Needless to say, it was a rather exhausting experience that gave me a headache from out of this world and managed to raise my bp to an unhealthy level. I did not get much sleep last night due to the headache, despite the percocet, so I'm rather tired today. I think that after a nice warm bath I'm going to retire to the couch with some dpns and some chick flick until its time to go to Nathan's recital. If you read in the paper tomorrow that a south Atlanta woman was stabbed to death with her own knitting needles, it will most likely be me as the victim from yet another tyrade.

guarding the tree

This is my beloved Ting Ting guarding the Christmas tree. She takes her job very seriously, that is when she's not sprawled out on her back, laying on the futon in the meditation room. I guess that after a day of stressful tree-guarding, she needs to go do some zen meditation.
I finished one of a pair of socks for my youngest son (the cap modeler). It didn't fit. Bugger. I had bastardized a couple of patterns to come up with what it was that he was wanting and it didn't turn out. It was a highly discouraging experience. It made me feel like my 12 years of knitting experience is little more than random acts of knitting. I mean, c'mon, after knitting for this long you would think I knit a sock to fit a kid, but Nooooooooooooo. so, its back to the drawing board on the socks. In the meantime, I'm frantickly trying to finish up some "fetching" gloves for Christmas presents and trying to maintain a normal blood pressure while doing so.

mad hatter

Finally, a post with pictures. I whipped this hat up and my youngest son, who turns 10 in a couple of weeks, claimed it for himself. I found the pattern on ravelry. The yarns used are manos del uruguay and lamb's pride worsted. The lamb's pride has a mock cable twist and the rest of the hat was done in a 2x2 rib.
Obviously, my picture skills do not rival Amy's (www.finerskeinsinlife.blogspot.com) but at least I have proof of an FO.
The hat actually worked up really quickly on some circular addi turbos.
Nathan is my only prodigy knitter kid. He's also a budding pianist! Classical music fills the house as he practices obsessively every moment he has a chance.
I've got a wrap that I'm working on in Trendsetter's sesamo for my mother-in-law for Christmas but I don't know if its going to get done in time or not. It has now reached the status of "bane of my existance" as some projects become as we try feverently to finish them and the never seem to get to the end.
Steven liked his anniversary socks and promptly put them on his feet.
I've been trying to do some online Christmas shopping this morning. We had virtually gotten NADA. I picked up a few small items the other day, but the major stuff has yet to be done.
Oh.... and in the holiday spirit of things, I've come up with a new random act of kindness...... random acts of bagging! Steven and I got groceries the other day and I was teasing him about his bagging skills (the checkout girl didn't have a bagger so he took it upon himself to bag our stuff). I told him he was so good at it that he should do it for the next person in line. He deferred the task to me, so in an effort to spread some positive energy into the universe, I bagged the man's groceries. I think the checkout lady and the man himself thought I was a little weird, but I think overall they appreciated the attempt at a good deed.

Happy Anniversary

Tomorrow I'll be giving the finished anniversary socks to my husband since its our anniversary. I went to take a picture of the FO, but I keep running across nothing but dead batteries.

So, happy anniversary to my hubby! I love you very much and wouldn't trade you for anything else in the world (not even Johnny Depp or Mark Ruffalo).
Reasons why I love my hubby:

He puts forth great effort to see the positive, beautiful things in people

He's very generous with friends and strangers alike, not just in a material way, but with his time as well.

He's very laid back and counterbalances my neuroses.

He's gentle and loving, but can be aggressive and chivalristic when the moment calls for it.

He believes in me.

He loves my cats

He doesn't yell at me when I mess up.

He tolerates the ever exploding mounds of yarn that seem to multiply.

He give the most awesome foot rubs on the planet.

We like the same movies and he'll even go see chick flicks with me...... and like them!

We like the same books and will read to me or let me read to him.

We like a lot of the same music and when we first started dating he went out and got an Indigo Girls Cd so I would have music to listen to when I came over to his house.

He's creative

He proudly wears the socks I make him.

He doesn't erase my many episodes of Knitty Gritty.

He takes care of me when I'm sick.

He walks the same spiritual path that I do.

I think he's cute.

I think he's sexy.

I like his voice.

I like his kisses.

And there's a lot more, but I'm afraid it would be x-rated!

the road to wellville

Its been a rather wicked three weeks. After months of pretty much daily headaches that seemed to subside with the help of excedrin migraine, I got a doozy of a headache that lasted about 2 weeks. The first doctor I went to proclaimed it to be migraines and sent me home with migraine medication...............all of which made my headache worse. After several calls to the office to tell them that the headaches weren't getting any better, the best they could come up with was scheduling me with a neurologist in a week. So, I jumped ship so to speak and went to a different family care provider who was not too pleased that the first practice had given me an Imitrex in the office and then promptly sent me on my way in my own personal vehicle. My BP was elevated and it had been, but the first doc was trying to say that the bp was up because of the headache. Now mind you, I've never been diagnosed with migraines before. The second doctor gave me some blood pressure medication in the office and then kept me there for 45 minutes closely monitoring my BP. Its been a week now and I've had an appointment with a neurologist and and MRI this morning but it looks like I've joined the ranks of the hypertensive.
I did accomplish some knitting during my illness. One can get some interesting knitting done when on percocet and fioricet. I don't have any pictures to post at the moment of these works done under the influence. But I am back among the living............................finally.

my favorite heel

This is a closeup of the heel of the anniversary socks for my husband. Its the slip 1, knit one then purl the next row then knit 1, slip 1 heel pattern. I was going to take a picture of the calorimetry I just finished (aside from weaving in the ends and placing the button) but the batteries appear to be dead in the camera. Oh well. I've been fooling with some yarn and some needles trying to get gauge to make fetching from knitty.com, but its just not happening. Dammit. I was trying to use a lavender patons grace with a moda dea held together. I even tried it on size 3 needles, but it was just looking way too big so I let it go for now. I've been having chronic headaches lately and after having to leave work early on Friday because of a headache that just wouldn't go away, I've finally gotten an appointment with a doctor tomorrow. I've never seen this doc before so I'm apprehensive about that, but she's the doc of my nurse manager and she seems to like her. I went to a doc last year for some other issues and did not care for him at all. Considering that I'm getting bitchier by the moment because my headache has not given me much of a repreive since last Wednesday I need to go see somebody about this.
So I am off to snuggle into bed with the anniversary socks and knit around and around and around in monotony. At least I won't have to do any knitting math that would further torture my head.

Sunday afternoon

I've finished one of my husband's anniversary socks (aside from weaving in the ends). I started on the other one last night. We (the kids and I, hubby is in D.C. right now) were watching Evan Almighty and I needed a knitting project that didn't require a lot of concentration. I had started on some fingerless gloves for my stepneice earlier in the day but I kept getting interrupted so I put them aside for a time when I'm alone.
Also, I've posted a picture of my son's mitten project that he has started. He's learning to do increases now. Isn't his progress great?! He said he wanted a gift card to Knitch for his birthday. At last a confirmation that he possesses some of my DNA!!!
The boys go back to their dad's this afternoon and if my stepdaughter gets her room cleaned up, she'll be going to a church thing with the neighbors then perhaps I will have some peace.