Oh my! I hope things get better. The little cuts can almost be worse than a single, massive blow. I still would like a post about the knitting belt and how it works, with more pictures. Only when you have time. No rush.

I hope your day gets better and the week improves a lot. Presently, I have a headache--a sure sign weather is about to mix things up a bit.

It's a balance thing..... Give it a day and everything will mellow..... Glad you had such a great time....

Oh sounds like a really trying day - you need coffee, a chocolate biscuit, and some knitting, then although it won't sort out any of the issues, you'll at least feel more able to deal with them. Hugs xx

Wow. So, the forces the dispense all things fecal have set their sites on you, too. I think they ate some really spicy food when they visited me this morning. Perhaps the forces of the Universe will send some karmic Immodium.

Yeah...I know that feel. Sometimes its worse when all the little things go wrong.
Carry on, warrior!

Ouch. Those days suck. And, it's usually why I dive into massive cleaning, so that I'm too busy to bite anyone's head off. Maybe wine or chocolate would help?

I too have a funny smell (in the basement) but I need to have the other big-sized people to come home before I can ask them about it. Maybe it will go away by then. I can hope! And I hope your day goes better, now that the computer has gone away.

You could always try a glass of wine, a hot bath with a good book, a nice walk....

The spinning rainbow beachball of doom. . . good phrase. I feel your pain.

Hey, wait, what's the temperature in Toronto? Isn't it a little cold to wash the floor?

If I were you i'd grab some knitting a hot cup of tea and just sit and knit. If the weather is anything like here in Fort McMurray it's cold and gross, Enjoy the quit time :)

Wow - been there, had one of those day...
Have a cup of tea and I hope it gets better!

It sounds as though gremlins are chasing you. You haven't been feeding them after midnight, have you? Also, the stitch pattern for the baby blanket would be awesome. Even the name and designer would be great.

Hope your day improves.

I wish I could come over with some laundry detergent and scrub floors and let you sit and knit!

I am so sorry to hear you have had one of "those" days. There are times it is just easier to admit defeat and wait for the sweet relief of crossing the day off the calendar and cautiously crawling into bed.

I wonder if Mercury is in retrograde again.

What is a knitting belt?

<3!

My rule of thumb from now until the end of time, when something smells funny, is to try to take out all of the garbage and then try to remember where we might have set a mouse trap. I found the remnants of a dead mouse (bit of fluff and a boney tail) under my dining room cabinet, so "eau de souris morte" is not out of the realm of possibility in my house.

Rammed huh? In the early days of personal computers there was a poster available that said "Strike any key to continue." It had a duck (I think it was) with a HUGE mallet ready to 'strike' the computer. It still applies doesn't it?

I share your pain. I wonder what a knitting belt is. MOst importantly, I know a GREAT electrician, who is good looking to boot. (no, I'm not married to him!)

Technology is great, but when it lets you down, nothing drains the joy out of your day. Have a lovely alone time this afternoon and I'm sure you'll feel that things are back on track.

Sit down with tea and a good movie. Knit at least 5 repeats on the blanket, then get up and have a good stretch. Walk around. Wash that kitchen floor.

Then, if the spirit moves, do another 5 repeats on the blanket.

You. Can. Do. This.

Days like you are having make the non-wonky days so much sweeter. Hope tomorrow is a brighter day!

This is a blessing in disguise! Think of all the knitting you'll be able to get done. And just maybe a little cleaning too.

I love Ann S.'s suggestion for coping at 1:23!

oh where oh where does one aquire a knitting belt?

Welcome to my life, Stephanie. :-) I'm very glad to hear that the weekend went so well, but sorry that the rest of the week is going downhill. Fingers crossed that the computer gets better soon.

Take a deep breath and relax. Take a moment to center yourself. And then find something small that you know you can get done and be in complete control of, and focus only on that until it's done. Then find something else and focus only on that. Don't worry about all the things that are piling up that need to be taken care of, or how long it takes you to do it, or all the things you're behind on, or everything that's going wrong - you'll deal with what you can in time, and what you can't, there's no reason to let it get to you - it won't do anything but stress you out.
It's easy not to see what you've managed to do when you're looking at everything that still needs to be done, but even 20m of spinning on a bad day is a good amount, because that's 20m that you don't need to do the next day. Not every day can be super productive. Some days, you just have to be thankful with what you do get done.
...and being 8 repeats behind on the blanket just means you have to do an extra repeat for the next 8 days.

RAM is Random Access Memory. It's like our short-term memory. It's how the computer does three or four things at once (internet, word processes, minesweeper, ext) or that's how my boyfriend explains it to me. Good luck with your computer!

So sorry for all those annoyances! I wish you peace for awhile today.

Sorry you ran out of awesome! Hope you had enough to help sustain you through this lull of it. If it helps, you can wash clothes without laundry detergent at least once if they've been washed before, there is enough detergent not rinsed away after a regular wash to get them clean again, as long as they're not stained or anything. Though that may not help, since it means you could still do laundry. Sorry!

Personally, I would not want to hang out in a place where there was no cat food. My little buggers would sense that and give me no peace.

Steph, you need beer and chocolate!

At times like these there's a lot to be said for unplugging the phone, sitting on the couch with one's beverage of choice, and either knitting, reading, or just rocking back and forth while cradling a pillow. i give you permission to do all or none of the above. The cats will survive.

Love this picture . My daughter-in-law has the same profile at the moment and word has it Ty gets a baby sister the end of March. Sorry for the lousy little things bugging you but you are sent a big hug and a knit awhile wish.

Screw the tea.

Beer.

I found this online...could this be the same?

A Knitting Belt is used to enable one-handed knitting

The belt, is used to enable one-handed knitting, or to use three pins for “in the round” Fair Isle patterns.

The precursor of the belt was a bound bundle of quills, which was soon replaced by the leather, horse hair stuffed belt.

Traditionally, the only way for women in Shetland to earn cash was to sell knitwear. So they knitted the whole time. Whether doing croft work, carrying the peats home, or cooking; they knitted with one hand - the other free to do something else.

Disabled people such as stroke victims also find the belts useful.

A weird smell in a non-food part of the house is surely an ex-mouse in the wall. It is the oddest smell but thankfully it goes away after a week or so.
What happened to the days of milk delivery to homes? Surely there will always be a market for that business, no?

Love your blog! I've been having one of those weeks too. Trying to drown it out in netflix and knitting design.

They were out of laundry detergent at the store??? Damn!

Those little things can really gnaw at your nerves. I hope times will get better for you real soon. :-)

I love the picture of the knitting belt. I simply cannot knit (unless using circulars or teeny DPNs) unless I jam the right needle into my stomach to steady it. I don't know why, except that I think this is what my grandmother did (who taught me) and so I just blindly do the same thing always. And this is the ONLY advantage of the freaking spare tire I developed a while ago (thank you menopause)... it makes a nice little holder for the end of the needle.

I second all the other suggestions: knit 5 repeats with tea or beer -- take a break and wash the floor -- eat a little chocolate -- and then see how far you get with more repeats on the blanket. Perhaps by then computer will be home with more RAM or having been rammed, or hit with a sledgehammer, or whatever ... and it will behave properly!

Still at my office, looking longingly at the sock in progress that I hoped to be able to knit on a little during a break. But so far no luck, as my computer is behaving admirably. Drat.

I found a link for Knitting Belts....I had never heard of/seen this before.

http://www.journeyman-leather.co.uk/knittingbelt8.html

I had the same kind of morning at work...not a big deal...but so annoying.
Knitting is definitely in order (for me in about 4 hours after work), but for you....immediately.

Oh my gosh I'm famous now!!! I miss the knitting belt! :)

I think now I want one....it just seemed to put everything in such a comfortable position!

So thankful that I got to meet you and take your classes! I was telling my dear husband that I thought we should be best friends now, and you should come to our house for coffee! bahahaha.....

I'm following the 21 day rule...and working on my very addictive Noro striped scarf....

Hope all those nasty little problems fix themselves and you have a wonderful day of knitting or spinning...and relaxing!

I think it was the solar flares. Suppose to reek havoc on all things electronic and electrical. Anyway, that's what I'm telling myself...

The smell at the top of the stairs? They can all smell it. They just think that whatever it is will be too gross to clean up, so they're leaving it for you. I say this from experience. I once found-by smell, of course-a can of what had once been Dr. Pepper. I was naturally the only one who smelled it, thankfully the clean up was easy, but I learned a valuable lesson: Smell is like hearing, it can be selective when it comes to your kids and husband.

Must be the unusual electromagnetic energy coming from the solar storms -- I spent 2 1/2 hours yesterday with my sister, ostensibly knitting. I completed 2 rounds (total of 168 stitches) on a hat, and she undid half a sock.

The days where nothing big goes wrong, but nothing goes right either, I know and hate those days. If something huge goes wrong, at least you understand why you feel like crap. Death by paper-cuts is so much worse.
I don't have much to add to the excellent advice already given, except that everything looks better to me after a nap. If you can squeeze one in, it might help your mood.

Sorry you're having a day. I had to snicker a little at this post though, cause for some reason it totally brought to mind that song called (I think) "Alice's Restaurant". Or maybe it's just me.

Yup, scrubbing the kitchen floor will take the desire to ram right out of you. Aaand, then you'll have a clean floor as well, instead of something rammed that has to be cleaned up or fixed. When I had a day like that I used to play Mahalia Jackson at top volume to beat it.
Hope that's all the things-going-wrong you'll have for a while.

Days or weeks like this visit us all from time to time. For example, right now I am supposed to be in another town paying a traffic ticket earned by my son but issued to me as the car's owner; but my plan for the day derailed when I got up this morning feeling lousy and not wanting to go anywhere. Luckily,I have until next Tuesday to pay the ticket.
For the Gremlins/bad vibes/assorted domestic bs, I recommend a stiff gin and tonic. Tea has the reputation of being a cure-all but as a Brit who doesn't drink tea, I can attest to the fact that our ability to tolerate most of the daily crap in our lives is mysteriously improved by the consumption of a nice G&T. Don't attempt complicated patterns, but otherwise you should be OK.

Hang in there wonder girl! You need a little rest is all and maybe a Guinness. Do you like Guinness?

ALL of you have cheered my day, and that's a big order, considering the fact that we are JUST out of a week of snow, rain, ice, broken trees, and power outages in the western Washington area, and my husband, bless him, got up this morning with a horrible sore throat! Since he's had Parkinsons Disease for 22 years, there are respiratory threats in this, and I'm priming my coping skills mojo with tea and music. And you and knitting. It will improve.

CHOCOLATE. COFFEE OR BEER OR G&T. FEET UP AND KNIT. Anything else could be dangerous, given the negative vibes apparently floating around in your area.

Perhaps today is just cursed -- I have just discovered that my new skirt, worn for the first time today, has a HUGE piece of chewing gum stuck to it, which has now also got stuck to my computer chair. I am seriously considering that G&T. That and death by firing squad for everyone who uses chewing gum.

I hope tomorrow is better for all of us ...

Don't worry. Babies are never born before you are done knitting.

Shoot. It's gotta be a dead field mouse. Their little droppings are bad enough - why can't they go outside to die?

A few years ago when I worked at a local hospital and everything "small" was going wrong, we would look at each other and say "At least we're not surgeons!" On the other hand, I wonder what surgeons do when they have days like that? It doesn't bear thinking about.

And Mahalia Jackson on full blast couldn't hurt. Maybe she'd shame the demons into departing.

I truly feel your pain this week. On Monday we came into the office to a truly funky smell, which turned out to be an enormous dead opposum in the ceiling space, and today while working on my thesis the hard-drive on my laptop decided to overheat and die. So, hears hoping nothing died in your house and that fortunately computers are (for the most part) fixable.

I can't say anything to top what everyone else before me has said. I do so love the picture of Debbie with the knitting belt on. I think Debbie and her baby bump is adorable. If you could only take one picture of the weekend I'm so happy it was of Debbie knitting with the belt.

Want you to know that I enjoyed the weekend thoroughly. Actually there are not enough words to tell you just how much I enjoyed it. (No, I don't get out much). You might remember me as the one who yelled WE HAVE TO DO ANOTHER CHAAAAAAAAART???

All will get sorted out in due time and your awesomeness will return full blast. You've spent a great deal of it on the class. All the best.

Connie (Maltesecross on Ravelry)

I had a mysterious smell that caused me to tear apart the whole laundry room in search of it. In the end it was an over watered violet essentially floating in a swampy slurry of green liquid smell. Ewwww!

you definitely need wine and chocolate....and preferably lots of each. x x

Hope your day improves, I say wash the %%##** out of the kitchen floor to shake off the "kill with bare hands" feeling....then focus on your knitting reward time.
Peppermint oil will combat the smell of dead mice, if thats what you think it is.
Oh!! just a thought, the wiring problem may result in the power supply to the whole house being turned off for the repairs, so anything needing power should be top of the list.Make a thermos of COFFEE.

I know how you feel! I just had a baby, I have cabin fever and the house has dust bunnies the size of small dogs. what is your knitting belt by the way?

What a crap feeling. Personally, I would have a little doona time, where I read or play sudoku, then I would tackle the stickies and the smellies, or not.

Before you go for the wiring, check your new lightbulb. I just had something similar happen in a lamp and it turned out that the new lightbulb that I bought had a broken filament and was "burned out" before use. Thank goodness that I checked the lightbulb, because I am not sure I would have been okay with paying an electrician for nothing.

....get a beer dear, sit-n-knit! Forget the world for a bit. The sun keeps coming up and...as I had one of "those" days yesterday, it got better today as...you need one of "those" days to really appreciate...today!

Loved hearing you speak on Friday evg. Alas, by the time I heard you were coming to Londont, the classes were fully subscribed...

I was pleased to hear that "Lever Knitting" is your term for my "style" of holding needles - which my friend Reina has always called 'crotch' knitting! [she attended your class] No one showed me this - but, given my Orkney/Orcadian ancestry, I suspect it's genetic.

And, yes, I ALWAYS CARRY "Emergency Knitting" with me! [Fie on those disbelieving academic-types at that UK university...!]

Sounds like you're having a classic Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

I'm intrigued by the knitting belt. Please tell me more.....

I, like others, suspect you may have a mouse corpse somewhere about. They really do smell awful. We don't have them in our house but we definitely have them at the cottage. I have a feeling your family CAN smell it. I bet the cat can smell it too.

And when you find out what that smell is, have somebody else clean it. All of you work, but why do you have to clean up after everyone, too? That's just a question. How you decide to live out the little bit of time we have on earth is up to you. But I'd love to know what you based that decision on and why it bothers you that you have to do all that extra work.

I'm with the solar flares crowd. We had all the crazies on our phone lines at work - even more than usual. Something definitely weird with the universe this week.

Do you ever wonder why nobody else notices that the kitchen floor is sticky, or feels compelled to do something about it?

Stephanie? It might just be the wall switch that's dead. It is wiring, of course, but it's wiring with a little w, versus big W Wiring .... Given that all your other issues are kind of little letter issues, maybe it''s just the switch?

I have two words for you. Knitting and Chocolate. It solves everything, I promise!

I'm putting my money on a dead mouse in the wall. Just to complete your week...

I recommend beer ... a really good, craft beer.

I'm with Presbytera--at our house we call those Alexander days. At which point one intentionally breaks an old vase that one really hates, sweeps up the bits, and then knits and drinks. And orders out. Pizza, or something really fattening.

You could always consider just sleeping through the rest of the week and start out fresh on Sunday.

I am sure things will turn around for you shortly. In the meantime I would recommend knitting,ordering in, having a good bath, and living in your pajamas so as not to dirty any more laundry until A) the wiring situation is figured out and B) more laundry becomes available.

I'm still enjoying a happy buzz for the wonderful weekend, so I'm sad life is wearing at you.

I'm practicing my lever knitting faithfully every day and I'm getting more comfortable. Now I can do four rows before I feel like chucking it.

Do you think that practicing twice a day, morning and night, is twice as effective as practicing once a day? Or am I just being a keener?

There is a phrase for your day that I first heard nearly 20 years ago and it still works:

"I feel like I'm pecked to death by ducks."

There is a phrase for your day that I first heard nearly 20 years ago and it still works:

"I feel like I'm being pecked to death by ducks."

Hang on. Joe was here and we didn't get to buy him a drink?

as there's no milk, maybe a beer? Or will that make the blanket rows go wonky?

I know what you mean about a bunch of small things... waited 25 minutes for 20 minute service on my bus but, hey, it's here so lets not complain, right? Right... until it went out of service 6 blocks later and we had to wait a further 12 minutes for another one.

~Ms. Cranky Pants

PS: I hope your day improved and that mine will starting... now! :-)

I, too, recommend a drink of some sort that doesn't need milk. Then knit. Or spin. Only wash the kitchen floor if it will really make you feel better (it wouldn't me). And remember that The Blog loves you!

My very techy son says that the spinning beach ball means something is loading but if the ball IS spinning the program that makes the graphic spin causes the whole thing to lag even more and then the program you want will load even more slowly. With permission errors you might not be logged on as the correct user? That's his best guess based on your description w/o looking at it. He says RAM might help but it could actually stem from another problem. He had a reason for the photo thing freezing too but I don't know what it was... he was speaking that other language that techy people speak, kind of like knitting language only different. He says the beach ball is terrible.

Oh noes! I'm so sorry. =( I hope that tomorrow is excellent!

Something must be retrograde (it's not Mercury, I checked that's good until March) because it sounds a little bit like my house. Especially the bit about the lights burning out, and replacing the bulbs having no effect.

OK, I realize my dining room light fixture is old. This house was built in 1960 by my late parents and it's the ORIGINAL fixture. Yes, I see the fraying around the cord suspending it from the ceiling. Yes, I see the bare wires. But seriously. It just can't be the wiring. Or the fixture. No. It's the bulbs or the gremlins, has to be.

Because I have no man to do the man work (put a Mandaid on it) and that's not in the budget right now nor would it be top priority if it was, but OMG it sucks that I can't have dinner at the dining table at night because it's January and dark after 5 PM and I'm getting tired of eating in front of the computer...

Pass the G&T over thisaway.

Helen at 1:19 -- The poster showed a duck wearing eyeglasses and dressed in a shirt, tie, vest (waistcoat for the Brits), and suit jacket. I still have that poster on my cubicle wall at work!

Steph, I must echo those that think you should just curl up with some soothing knitting and some alcoholic beverage. I'd also suggest either enticing the cat to purrrrr for you and meditating using the purr as a focus, or putting on some upbeat '80s pop. The theme from "Ghostbusters" or the entire soundtrack from "Footloose," for example. (If it would help, sing along with -- or lipsync -- "Let's Hear It for the Boy" while serenading Joe. Take your top off while doing so. Lather, rinse, repeat as needed!)

Okay. I'm hunting down a pattern for a pair of thrummed mittens that have a cable wrist, which I'm pretty sure I could make up the pattern fairly easily, but since I know the pattern exists, it is rather driving me insane while I hunt over the entire internet for it, and I thought..hey, I'll ask Stephanie.

Now I know that you've mentioned in this "blog" that you only recently came across thrummed mittens, and instead made a pair of silk hankie mittens, which is all well and good, since I do have silk hankies, and I could take up a batch of random dying and make a mess of the kitchen, but I thought...hey...I can ask Stephanie...

And so I am here. Asking Stephanie, thinking to myself that you hardly have time to breathe, you're not going to read this comment.

Are you?

Well, if you are, and you know where this flippin' pattern is that I'm referring to (thrummed, with a cable cuff) could you PERHAPS email me and let me know where you found it????????

Sigh.

I think you need a nap!

Rocking bad (read: expensive / potentially painful) news from the dentist and emergency hot water tank replacement here in Montreal this week so I completely appreciate the miserable "virtual" company.

Children/husbands usually don't smell the dirt, or see it, or ...We do, which is why we don't have as much time to sit and knit as we would like to!

As someone mentioned previously, blame the solar storms of late.
I had a "blue screen of death" yesterday morning (I figure you are old enough to know about those things) and thought it was just my computer playing silly buggers.
Today I was talking to a provincial government person, and she said she'd had several blue screens in the past few days. And there had been a memo sent around to government departments saying that extra care should be taken because solar particles were causing various problems. (She moaned that someone - in their wisdom - had e-mailed that information, rather than sending it as a post-it note or in some other hard-copy form.)

Gee, sending best energy to you. Here's to the day turning out to have been fulfilling and useful and some rest in there too.

Sending all of my spare positive vibes your way. I hope tomorrow is better.

That smell that nobody else smells in the house? Why is it that ALWAYS the woman of the house smells the unusual???? My neighbour "smelled" something unusual and it turned out to be a faulty heat exchanger re: her 4 year old furnace. If she waited 3 more hours she would have been dead- ---carbon monoxide!!!! And.... her husband did not smell the furnace malfunctioning. ( I know... carbon monoxide is odourless but the furnace was malfunctioning and smelling) Yay for us women of the home and our noses!!!!!!

So many pebble-in-the-shoe irritations can add up to feel like tripping over a boulder. Times like those call for The Serenity Prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference."

Sending good thoughts your way for MUCH better days.

I hate those weeks. I love the knitting belt!

I'd like to take a hammer to my computer too. And then back over it a few times in the driveway. I'd get a new one, but I find it to be overwhelming.

Personally, I think there is something going on with week across the board. So far my week has been one small irritation piled on top of the other into a Mt. Everest sized pile. So I feel your pain. Hope the week gets better!

You could "belt" the new computer. Just a thought........... hope today is a better day.

Even for the most technical amongst us computers can sometimes be more trouble than they are worth. I'd take the time and do something that will still look like progress in two days. If that means washing the floor, then that is good. If instead it is spinning a hundred meters or more, then that works too. As long as tomorrow you can look at it and go, I got shit done!

Gah, the numerous little things (especially when one of them is computer- or car-related) can drag so much more than one big thing.

KNITTING BELT!! Where, oh where, did you find one?

London is an absolutely MAGICAL place. I can't explain it what it does, but ever since I was dragged to Ottawa by my Montrealer husband to live for 10 years, I felt I was ripped from heaven. To this day I still pine away for the uniqueness of that city. Something about it make you never want to leave - but that's just me. Although I'm Toronto born and raised, London will always be Home and now living only an hour from it makes me feel near whole again. We'll be moving back when my son is off to university (hopefully, UWO, where I attended).

You have my empathy on all the annoyances. By the way, Mars went retrograde on Monday, and it seems like EVERYONE is having big and little annoyances. Even if you think astrology means nothing, it is a bit . . . interesting. And thanks for the photo of the knitting belt; what a clever idea!

is there a way to continental knit with the knitting belt?

No Way- do not rip that beautiful blanket! I see 'it' in the top picture, and not in the bottom. I wonder too if it isn't just the thickness of the yarn, and I say 'it' is a totally handmade charm- reminds me too about how the Amish always make sure there is a 'mistake' in their beautiful & simple quilts, so that God won't think they take themselves too seriously. I am not really taking a religious view here but still I think it's a nice idea. Pretty much no one is going to doubt the magic and charm of your knitting, now or in the distant future. Your knitting has changed the world, Woman!

I completely understand the struggle and the decision ... I meet that place often in my knitting ... and I confess to being comforted that even a professional has frustrating, inexplicable and unnecessary problems. Thank you for the post. How about a long post on how to use a knitting belt ? Thanks

Awesome weekend Stephanie. Thank you SO VERY much. You were a delight!

I hate to say it- but you should think about getting a imac desktop for your stuff, and and ipad for portability. The laptops just can't keep up with the amount of stuff.

Crap days are soul-suckers. But they do have a way of putting non-crap days into context! I say follow your heart and take a break from your (admirable) expectations of yourself. My occasional 'blob days' seem to give me mental procesding time (and your busy, rewarding weekend will be a pleasure to mull over), so the next day I'm more balanced. We all need a bit of time to grrrrowl and protest!

You'll be cool. I hope you write with pride about what you choose to do to get through this day. Have an Ozzie cyber-hug to help things along.

Your new book came in the mail yesterday. I spent the evening chuckling and nodding my head: "yes, too true" etc...
Passed it over to my husband to read the chapter about Joe getting his truck stuck in the snow at the parent's house. We can relate to that story also. Thanks for another winner. I have all of your previous books and periodically re-read them. Your blog starts me off with a smile every morning.

Love your blog!