In more ways than one. The children return to school in 22 hours. I have become so completely deranged by the constant presence of this many people in the house that three things have happened.
1. I have begun to feed and house random children from the neighbourhood. Yesterday there were 4 children at dinner, this morning there are four children at breakfast. I have three children. That means that one of these is not mine. I have not investigated this further because whoever the extra kid is....I think they put their plate in the dishwasher. You don't just walk away from that.
2. I have actually contracted some kind of dread disease ( probably from one of the "free range" neighbourhood children streaming in and out of my home, eating all the food, messing up the kitchen and spreading pestilence). I believe that it may be the common cold. I find it bitterly ironic that I have been stricken in this way the day before I have a reason to live.
3. I have decided that since I feel really, truly crappy, and since Joe does not have a twitch over one eye and a March Break related affliction that I will sit on the couch drinking tea and ignoring the children while swatching the edging for the snowdrop shawl. I'm imagining that it is going to do me a lot of good to watch him suck up his share of "family time".
What say we all? I did an applied I-cord edge to the top, then (brace yourself) picked up stitches all the way along the two long edges of the swatch. (Not as bad as I thought....about 400) I knit a little bit on those stitches, then settled on an edging. I took a pretty simple eyelet pattern (It had to be simple if I was going to work it out) and combined it with the column pattern from the snowdrop lace. I love knitting lace. I love the way it looks like a puddle of crap until you block it,
and I love how far laceweight yarn goes. That ball there, my little kittens is the first ball. That's right, I've knit this absolutely huge swatch, a whack of I-cord and a whole ton of edge-swatch and I've not yet run out. I've got nine more balls! I'm the queen of the world! I could make like.....7 shawls or maybe 25 scarves, or a christening dress and 6 shawls or.....One really, really big swatch.
Abby has made me some Buttons. Despite having suffered a tragic sock frogging incident this week, she thought of others. What a nice lady. Steal at will. I'll put them in the sidebar as soon as I figure out how. I'm especially fond of the Wool-pig, which is obviously not a Harlot specific button.
You crack me up! I am addicted now - I check your site everyday to see what's up, and if you haven't been in yet, I check again later. (I won't say many times, that would make me seem pitiful, wouldn't it?)
Posted by: Theresa at March 21, 2004 11:08 AMI love the wool-pig button! The swatch is looking very lovely. I'm glad you ignored requests to leave it alone and went with an edging. Yes, I think it is definitely Joe's turn to take care of the kids! Your physical and mental health depends on it!
Posted by: Amber at March 21, 2004 11:54 AMI take back my edging-hesitant-ness--that edging looks terrific!
And I love the buttons and will steal both (which is probably good because I had put a thumbnail of the voodoo dolls picture next to the link to your blog on my sidebar. :) I couldn't resist.)
Enjoy your tea--only a few hours of togetherness to go!
Delightfully pointy.
Are there qualifications to brand one-self "Wool Pig"? You know. Number of bins, poundage/yardage minimums. That sort of thing.
Posted by: claudia at March 21, 2004 12:47 PMI was wrong.
There. I said it. Treasure this moment - I don't often admit to erroneous judgement.
The sh... er, swatch is now perfect. The edging has removed it from the realm of beautiful to jaw-dropping gorgeous.
Posted by: Lene at March 21, 2004 1:42 PMWow! The swatch is lovely! Hope calmness descends soon! I love your blog!
Landrace or Tamworth? Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by: anon_spinster at March 21, 2004 2:24 PMFab swatch !
I particularly like the beautiful swatched edging.
Stephanie, it is the most beautiful swatch I've ever seen, truly. I come and look at the pictures every day and just can't believe someone could make something so delicate. You have every right to be proud of it!
ps.. I stole your pig! :o)
Posted by: Julie at March 21, 2004 3:34 PMSigh... lovely swatching... :)
I think I too will make off with a wool pig.
Great piece in Spin-Off, by the way!
Posted by: Rana at March 21, 2004 3:43 PMYour swatch is now even more beautiful. I'm beginning to love holes - lots and lots of holes. I never thought I would admit to this, now I've said it. Hallelujah! Spring Break is almost over. I'm sure sanity will return quickly. Brew some more tea while you wait.
Posted by: bea at March 21, 2004 3:43 PMOk, what is the yarn? It looks like I am doing enough knitting and selling that I might be able to buy some yarn as nice as that.
Stephanie, I love your humor and I love your swatch. The edging was the right choice - it really finishes it. The idea of March breaks was indeed invented by schools to keep parents in line when it comes time to vote more tax money for the schools ;-) I know this as a fact since I'm a former teacher and the teacher's union always scheduled a strike right after a long vacation. It usually only took a few days of parents calling downtown to get them to cave in on any and all demands. "Give them ANYTHING, but get these kids back at school." :-)
Isn't it wonderful how much you can get from a little tiny ball of yarn when you do lace knitting?
Thanks again for your humor.
Love the lace. I've been under the weather, too, unfortunately, it is not my karma to have ANY peace and quiet for the next, oh, 13 years.
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