Funk

Dear Blog: Today, it's awful. My brain is in reverse and my emotions are in the seventh level of Dante's Inferno. I've been sleeping eight to 10 hours a night, but wake up without feeling bright or refreshed. Why do I deliberately sabotage myself and my life? It's got to be deliberate because no other reason exists for these financial and emotional swings. What is wrong with me, so I keep making myself miserable? What do I do, how do I stop this madness? Lord, please help me. I want to live a peaceful and productive life. Why do I keep destroying my forward progress? Stop! Stop! Pay off everyone and start at ground zero; peacefully knit up my stash (please); set aside the money to bring the truck, motorcycle and VW Fastback up to speed and legal - Do these things, and life will improve. What's wrong with me? At age 53 I have no savings, minimal retirement put aside, and a sick desire for validation from inappropriate sources. I wonder, truly, if Mike Brescia's motivational materials will help. Since Randy Cassingham accepted Brescia as an advertiser, I take that as at least a small endorsement.

The office administrator has not responded to my written request for a payroll advance, which probably means "no" which means cable will not be turned back on, internet will be canceled, telephone service shut off on both lines, and the cell will be useless. Everyone must respond to certain parameters as befits their station. She can only do as much as she is authorized to do.

Continuing this rant, well, there's nothing else to be said. Minor knitting going on, sock knitting is at a standstill, place is a mess and have to organize yarn by color and material. That's a start to reorganizing what I plan to be a craft-oriented home. I have the rocker-recliner, the floor stand Ott-Lite, the dresser solely for knitting and sewing and plenty of cardboard boxes for the initial sorting. Anybody in Old Town Torrance want to come and help? Ha Ha Ha! There might be some Paton's Twister or some Cha-Cha in it for ya!

What's up with this baaad mood? I'm on meds and taking 'em religiously, on vities and since I have no cable, there's no couch potato television viewing. Could I be addicted to what little television I do watch? Hmmm. More on THAT later.

Ta!

Woe, Woe, Woe

Betwixt and between yesterday and today, I discovered my house-sitting client's premises was left with a door unlocked, and the Jacuzzi cover similarly unsecured. I feel very bad and guilty over these two lapses and cannot fathom why these significant brain farts occurred. On the knitting front, I am looking for the last two skeins of some hand twisted yarn from Sandy "not just yarns" on ebay for the project currently on the needles for a very special lady. After experimenting with the chart for one of the sock patterns (lacy ones, not sure of the artiste) three times, I set the sock thing aside and cast on for the Mermail soy silk/wool fingerless gloves with sad results - the yarn has dis-integrated three times, and I've only knit six rows. So much for me and single-ply yarn! I was feeling a bit morose before my client called, and now I'm really down in the dumps. I have no desire to attend the Home Depot "Do-It-Herself" workshop tonight but should go to find out how to change the flapper/stopper inside of my cheapie toilet installed by my cheapied landlord by his cheapie plumber. I spent 10 years in the prior rental with NO problems like the ones presented in this poor little Craftsman 1920's bungalow, what with the lack of solid electrical wiring in the living room and kitchen (makes me want to cook or clean even less) with encroaching old age, BRIGHT lights are most helpful. BRIGHT lights! What does one do when the socks don't pattern right, your satellite TV is turned off, the telephone and internet are down and there's no Haagen Daas or Stoneyfield Farms in the freezer! I HAVE decided to cast on Sharon Miller's Frost and Ice in black for my sister, although I might use Karabella's Gossamer for more textural interest. Instead of having gold/silver flecks, the little shiny fuzzies are black. Low key, like my sister. I frogged the single row of ribbon married to Douceur et Soie due to a mis-count. If I plan to work the body in the round up to the underarms, I don't need the extra seam stitches which will help pattern continuity. I think the horseshoe stitch will be my signature lace bit in everything I make. I think I will have enough of the ribbon (I think it's Trendsetter - it's $18 for 72 feet or something insane like that) to make the foundation row for another lighter-than-air mohair laceweight top for the same, very deserving recipient). Then there's my cave-mate, who wants something I can make with my stash, I'm glad I invested in all that Anny Blatt mohair early on! And the Bleached Rowan KSH and the Lace Mohair from Karabella, also in white, all 10 balls, not to mention the "Rialto"
Woll Service mohair with the silver lurex. AND the Karabella Festival. Quick to knit up, but whooo will receive these shoulder throws? Hmmm. For being in a depressed state, this is certainly a looooooooong blog. MRI sometime this week to investigate the double vision which did not affect my knitting, only my driving. Hooray for the bus, which drops me off near work and in the other direction near home. Enough distance to get a bit of exercise, much needed around here. I feel so sad; why can't I shed any tears?

Well ciao for now. Tomorrow is another day. Perhaps casting on "Frost and Ice"? Or perhaps progress on those pesky socks which are top-down, not my favorite method but...there's always another sock coming down the Pike!

mary the motorcycle knitting grandma

Uh-Oh!

In addition to my other various medical ailments, I was unable to attend work on Friday, October 20, 2006 because I suddenly (as I was driving down the always-perilous 405 freeway) developed diplopia. I was not dizzy, had not hit my head, no nausea or weakness -- the eyes simply weren't working. Instead of driving into work, I drove myself immediately to the optometrist, who reported that physically and externally, my eyes themselves were fine. After that, off to the M.D., who also found nothing of interest but has put in for an MRI to make sure I don't have pressure against the optic nerve (come now, can't we just say TUMOR?). The double vision has not recurred so far, but then I'm not trying to drive, either. Only distance vision was affected (hooray, I can still knit and read - not at the same time, of course). I did have a blood sugar spike (who knew commercial granola bars were so high in carbs and sugars?), more than twice what it was two hours later, but the doctor didn't seem to think the blood sugar spike, while bad in and of itself, had anything to do with the diplopia. Although my mother is healthier than a horse, both my grandmother and my aunt (mom's older sister) did have transcient ischemic incidents throughout their later years.

Like many other Saturdays, I slept most of the day and turned in early. I got up this morning, puttered around the house, wound and re-wound a few skeins of yarn (the first winding is always far too tight, regardless of the winder used, or the swift).

I received the Halcyon catalogs yesterday and two yarn winding products caught my eye: The freestanding swift and the wooden ball winder, which should do 8 oz. skeins. I'm sorry, but the large Royal ball winder from Angelika's just isn't working for me. I tried to wind an 8 oz. skein of Jaggerspun but the wind was so tight I could have been winding baseballs instead of silk and wool yarn. Besides which the yarn broke so now I have TWO balls when the whole purpose of the Royal swift was to avoid multiple balls from a single skein.

My sister has asked for a lacy black shawl and it's a toss-up whether she'll get a Sharon Miller design or something out of Meg Swanson's lovely book of patterns. Then there's always Gladys Amedro, although I am saving the PAM shawl for a different occasion.

The frozen shoulder is slowly unfreezing, sometimes quite painfully even if I don't do anything to exacerbate it. Pooh and phooey.

And I'll NEVER get all those knitted things done in time for Christmas -- which probably matters more to the poor recipients than me, seeing as how I like to give gifts all of the time, not just on birthdays and holidays...

Superfoods diet...superfoods diet...superfoods diet...

Cherry Tree Hill Bungi Merino

Does anyone out there know how to knit with this stuff? It's much more ethereal than I expected; the Merino Tape is similar in construction.

Yes, I do have a motorcycle, and NOT a Harley - it's a 1983 BMW R65 which I can't ride at the moment due to adhesive capsulitis. Boo, hiss.

I created this blog to leave a post for Chrissie in Singapore, to find out how she's using the Bungi Merino!

10/4 and over.

mary in torrance, california