1. I spent 4 hours driving about 30km. I decided to drive because a G20 security thing had the subway closed.
2. Usually, four hours driving would get me somewhere really far, like Ottawa, but yesterday I was actually able to knit while driving.
3. This is because I am calling "sitting in my car while not moving for 20 minutes at a time because of the G20 security measures" DRIVING.
4. When I got out of the car after this period of "driving" I started to walk away from the car and was suddenly overcome by a wave of dizziness and vertigo. It felt like the world was shifting around and I thought maybe the 4 hours of rage and heat had gotten to me. I reached out and steadied myself with a hand on the car for a minute and the feeling passed. I decided I must really need a glass of water and a rest and went in the house. A few minutes later I learned it was a 5.0 earthquake. (No injuries, no damages.) I’m sort of relieved because as worrisome as an earthquake is, I really thought I was having a stroke for a minute.
5. I continued conducting an experiment. I ran the dishwasher 5 days ago and told the family that it needed unloading. I am waiting to see how long they will go just piling more dirty dishes on top of the appliance before one of them is triggered to unload it.
6. Yesterday we ran out of clean dishes.
7. While final results are not in, it would appear that teenagers will actually come to you and tell you that there are no clean dishes (exactly like they are unaware of the purpose or action of a dishwasher) before they will empty said dishwasher to obtain more.
8. This has made me wonder if I didn’t take a good enough pre-natal vitamin.
9. I went to the store and filled a cart with all I needed. I went to the cash register and discovered I didn’t have my wallet. I threw an internal fit, went home, grabbed my wallet off of the counter and went back to the store. Once there I got back in line, waited my turn and then discovered my wallet did not contain my bank card.
10. We are out of milk, bread, eggs and just about everything that isn’t a three year old condiment.
11. This is related to my reaction to the trauma of #9, which was to go directly home and lie on the chesterfield with a cold beer while trying to figure out how to turn olives, balsamic vinegar and three kinds of mustard into a meal.
12. While the G20 traffic had me waiting, I finished my June socks.
Embossed Leaves
I love this pattern, and this time I did the funky toe and heel that were in the pattern. I usually do as pleases me, but for the self-imposed sock of the month club I’m trying the patterns as written. It’s a fun way to try stuff I don’t usually do and get me out of my rut. (We all get in them.)
Turns out I love them even more when you follow the pattern. (Who knew?)
13. I grafted together the two halves of the Eventide scarf and set it to block.
14. Having new socks and a new scarf almost makes up for the the way the rest of the day went.
15. I may have ordered some yarn to take the edge off the rest of it.
It might not have been funny for you; but you made it funny for us!!
Am I really the first? Maybe it’s that 5 hour time difference working for me for once. Love the socks! Still going green I see. At least there was something good out of a rotten day. I wish I could say the same. The only good thing recently was a spectacular fireworks display last night. I can’t even knit! A) I can’t focus enough and B) the new kitten seems to be more enamored of my yarn than I am. He makes knitting difficult at the very least! 🙂
i think you behaved eminently reasonably in all instances considering the stresses under which you were placed (kind of like the planet, c.f. earthquake).
What a day! Mine pales in comparison. Wish you the best for getting around during the Summit! So glad I won’t be anywhere near Toronto during it.
I just got back to my dad’s place with him, he’s 87 and can’t be alone. While at home I picked up a circular needle that I “just had to have” at dad’s. I wonder what that is. Your socks are beautiful and , best of all, done.
Stick to your guns. Teenagers need to learn to empty the dishwasher and I swear this is the only way they learn it. LOVVE the green socks!
When the Nisqually earthquake hit in Seattle back in 2001, a lot of folks driving pulled over and got out to check their cars because they thought they had flat tires.
I myself am having the kind of time where my personal possessions keep (involuntarily) rehoming themselves to others. I think it’s time to find a hammock and let the world pass us by…
Does the success of the self-imposed sock club mean that Christmastime will be less entertaining? Because that would be sad. For me.
I can’t begin to tell you what a relief it is that someone else’s family ranges the house the same way mine does. Somehow it makes them not so irritating. Good to know too that someone else out there finds oh so much sanity from buying and knitting yarn. If I am a little weird, (as my family suspects), at least I have good company!
I totally understand about the dishwasher. I have wondered what would happen if I collected the various dirty dishes I found around the house and put them into a trash bag as I found them and just didn’t wash them. Would the males I live with notice the disappearing dishes? I honestly think my teen boys think that elves do the dishes. Glad you are okay and it was only an earthquake!
Re:#15– “May have” ordered some yarn? Whom are you trying to kid, Steph? After a day like that, we all know you bought out your LYS as well as every yarn catalog that exists. And well deserved. Rest up, hon. Knit. Drink. Ignore the dishes. (Get the girls to teach you how.)
Glad to hear the earthquake didn’t cause huge problems for most people, can understand how it managed to add to the waves in yours. The knitting is great, you have so much talent. I survived 4 of those beings we call children, good luck with getting them to understand the concept about open dish washer, put clean items in correct location, rinse and put dirty items in so they can again become clean.
The wallet, did that once and for me, town was 55+ miles away, was with sons who were or claimed to be adults who will Never forget it…
About 4 times a year I come home and my teenage boy has emptied the dishwasher because he saw it needed to be done. Today he asked me to teach him to use the washing machine because I don’t do laundry quickly enough. That sure makes up for all of the trauma he’s inflicted on us over the past couple of years.
The socks are gorgeous – thanks for sharing!
I did that at the grocery store once. It was kind of liberating to walk away from the register and tell the girl she had to put it all away.
Also,don’t you love the toe on those socks. I was skeptical at first, but they just make the pattern complete.
You have quite the way with words. I was reading along and thinking “this is so funny” and then I came to #8 (questionable prenatal vitamins) and I couldn’t help laughing out loud, which isn’t quite done at the Reference Desk. I hope you did in fact have beer (most important of the major food groups.)
Your socks are truly lovely… if only I could come close. Thanks for your Blog Stephanie
Love this post, I may have to start ordering yarn after “bad” days, hmmm, the furnace has been acting up so hot water is inconsistant for the time being, weather is scorching and the teenager is, well, the teenager. Off to buy some pretty yarn! 🙂 thanks for the laughs.
Did you ever thing that perhaps you summoned the earthquake when you were sitting in traffic. Hell hath no fury as a knitter stuck in a hot car (apologies to Bill S.).
P.S. The guys at my local store once let me take my purchases and just pay the next time I was in when I arrived with no wallet. I love them.
Oddly I just blamed the shaking on some near-by construction…
At least you’re not out of beer!
Can you do a bunch of little dishes with olives and dipping sauces and pretend it’s spanish tapas? That’s the best I can offer…
Oh, dear Yarn Harlot, I cannot believe that YOU of all people have not gone on a housekeeping strike! Seriously!
The trick is NOT GIVING IN, no matter how whiny people get. Let someone else figure things out while you slyly eat out (remember to take the bank card with you, though).
I once got so fed up with my crew that I totally refused to do any housework…for about a month. The walls did not fall in, nor did we die from the smell of stinky garbage that needed to be taken out. They got the message. Everyone pitches in now.
BTW, LOVE the socks! More of the leafy theme, I see. Just cannot seem to get away from the motif, eh? heehee
I think #11 probably explains the inability to empty out the dishwasher to obtain clean dishes better than a lack of pre-natal vitamins.
And where in the line-up did ordering a little yarn “to take the edge off” fit in?
You see, I have this teen-ager…
I still can’t believe TO had an earthquake. I would have thought it would have coincided with teenagers emptying a clean dishwasher, but I guess I was wrong.
We’ve been learning and applying the concepts taught by the folks at Love and Logic, to our teenager, and seeing impressive results.
(At the very least, the CD makes me laugh. And not in despair. To quote Red Green: We’re all in this together.)
Just in from a mid-week shopping myself, one that seemed to consist mostly of wine, yogurt (two brands) and The Right Kind of Guinness (with the little doohickey in it.) Maybe it’s that mid-afternoon brain-death, but it struck me that no dishes isn’t a problem if you’re also out of food.
When world leaders were in my city (DC), the security folks ran over a bicyclist and killed her. BTW — next time you go out you should go to a restaurant to eat and let the teenagers make their meal out of aging condiments. MWAH HA HAHAH
Well its good to see that I’m not the only one with a family that will not empty a dishwasher until there are NO dishes left (similar to not taking clothes out of dryer when there are no clean clothes left) However when the all the dishes are dirty, the dishwasher will become an extra cabinet where clean dishes can be had w/o having to undo the ENTIRE dishwasher. It is ONLY when the dishwasher is ALMOST empty when I will be informed that there are no clean dishes (or clothes, depending on the machine)
and waiting in line with groceries to leave wallet at home and then to find out card was in purse after only bringing wallet back to store.
It’s the knitting that keeps us sane (no matter how loosely it’s defined)
You always make me laugh or smile. Thank you for sharing the best and worst parts of your days with us. Love the socks.
#5 through #8 made me laugh out loud.
When the G20 was here in Pittsburgh we really didn’t leave the house for 2 days unless we could walk where we wanted to go. Just not worth it. Thankfully my office was closed.
When I had resident teenagers, they would actually put the dirty dishes in with the clean ones and hope that I wouldn’t notice! (They would also hide their dirty clothes in with the clean ones.) Too lazy to do anything to help themselves, or me!
The day that the last one moved out, I did my little happy dance. And then I changed the locks.
We felt that bit of vertigo all the way down here in Hackensack, NJ.
#8 is priceless. I, too must have got the generic brand, or something. My only child will be a teenager exactly one month from today but she started “being a teenager” kind of young. So … I can relate …
LOVE the Eventide scarf. Gotta ask you: (background) 1. I’m a fairly new but adventurous knitter. 2. I have some absolutely beautiful pre-beaded yarn that I want to use for a beautiful scarf. (questions) 1. Is the skill level required for the Eventide something that a new-but-adventurous knitter could handle, and 2. What do you think of using a beaded yarn for the Eventide?
Boo traffic, earthquakes, the forgotten wallet phenomenon (let me tell you about the once a month occurrence of THAT in my life), and full dishwashers – isn’t there a magic kitchen fairy at your house that does those things? 🙂
Yay pretty socks and scarves though!
Though, did you find that the instep on these socks is a little loose? I’m trying to figure out if I just have weird feet, or if I didn’t use the right yarn, or if it has more to do with it being my first socks, but the middle instep is a bit baggy for me… I’m guessing option 3.
I still love them though…and am so excited by yours that I want to knit them again in green.
I’ll see your 20 minutes and raise you 3.5 hours to go 5 miles the other day when there was a big accident on the interstate and they had to shut it down for cleanup. Thank God for audiobooks and knitting while (not) driving!
It doesn’t make any sense but I hate emptying the dishwasher so I have–sorry to confess this–waited until we had no more clean plates. And I’m an adult!
Early one morning a couple of years ago we felt a earthquake down here in Kentucky (USA). I thought hubby was shaking the bed trying to wake me. He was in the bathroom.
Love the socks and know the scarf will look wonderful.
We have that dishes thing at our house, and it drives me bonkers. Even worse is when the machine is full of dirty dishes (no one but mom apparently has the closely guarded secret code needed to make it start). Then the cry goes up, with a note of panic, “There are no clean glasses!” we are still working on the idea that it is legal for a person under the age of 35 to wash a glass by hand.
I did not feel it myself, but have heard that others here in NE Wisconsin felt a little shake from the ‘quake!
We just use clean dishes out of the dishwasher sometimes. Turns out, eventually you’ll use all the clean ones and behold, an empty dishwasher. Scarf looks soft and fluffy.
Goodness, that is a rather strange day. As to dishes, I came back from two nights away and Frisbees had been recruited to stand in for plates. Stranger thing is, I’m not the one who tends to do the dishes – no idea why things unravelled that badly. Laundry, on the other hand…
Adore you unabashedly. ADORE. xo
#5-7. It’s the same with underwear.
Wow! I have dirty dishes at my house as well and a hubsand who hates doing any sort of house work and leaves me to deal with all of it. Answer me this wouldn’t it make sense that a 30 year old man at least knows how to do basics around the house like dishes, laundry, taking out the trash ect? Well not my husband he leaves his 25 year old wife to do it. Anyway I am glad that you are alive and well ( and didn’t have a stroke or anything drastic like that). I love the socks! Much love to you and yours!
Just rub some yarn and a little beer on it and you’ll be all good 😉
LOL, I’m glad I’m not the only one who looked at the embossed leaves pattern at the toe and thought ‘this is odd.’ I did stick with it and like you, did become charmed with it as it formed.
As for dishes, I don’t think it’s the prenatal vitamins, it’s the kids. My sister and I were supposed to split the chores but since she never, ever did her half, I ended up doing the dishwasher loading/unloading, while the counters literally weren’t cleaned for months at a time. Unless she wanted something.
If you suddenly have clean dishes, they are going to ask for a favor. Be forewarned.
You should order a pizza, too. Balsamic vinegar, olives, and mustard go extraordinarily well with pizza and a beer.
I had a friend who swore if she ever built another house, she’d install two dishwashers and only have enough dishware to fit in one at a time. That way, one would have clean dishes, and as she used them she’d put them in the empty dishwasher until it was full, and do it all over again.
I’m not sure my landlord would go for it, though.
So happy you weren’t having a stroke. You are hilarious and we need your humor!
Your socks are super lovely! The color is very spring-early summer and nice. I missed the earthquake b/c I was driving my car and didn’t notice anything. Hope that doesn’t say anything bad about my driving. I lived across the country from my parents for about 13 years. When I returned, they seemed much older and I started unloading the dishwasher every morning when I visited – before they got up. (I must have been 35 when this started so just be patient!) I’ll have to watch the news tonight about Toronto adjusting to G20 (my savy tv only catches reception for neighboring stations in Canada so I see only Canadian news, except on the internet). Maybe the oblivious teenagers should buy you dinner “out” until they realize they can start unloading the dishwasher.
Oh those socks are lovely.
I’m surprised none of the non-dishwasher unloaders has not tried my trick yet- open the dishwasher to get the dish/utensil that you need, then close it and lock it as though you hadn’t gone into it to get one thing. That way no one will ever know you were in there, but not putting stuff away…
Honestly I don’t understand why the G20 can’t have a teleconference like the rest of us. Dudes, let me introduce you to skype!
And also, we have the same problem with the dishwasher except in our house it’s the clothes washer. My 10 year old was finally shamed into doing her laundry by my 7 year old engineer, who loves starting and watching the front loader. At least she was once.
Congrats on all the finishing! Doesn’t it feel great? And even getting the vicarious thrill from your finishing, I just can’t bring myself in this heat to put the button band on a lopi cardigan that’s been languishing since April.
Man. When I was a teenager I had to wash the dishes *myself*, *by hand*, *every stinking day*! Kids these days…
I feel your specifically-Toronto pain these days…did you hear they cancelled city-wide school busing? This is a large city and I seriously doubt that most of the school buses are required to either take routes that might be closed for diplomats, or to go close to the “red zone” but alas…will only continue to make life more interesting for the next few days.
And did you hear about the possible tornado last night?
I’m waiting for frogs and pestilence next…
Hope the G20 at least motivates some great new knitting!
Robin
Regarding 4: I had that happen to me once at home (San Francisco). I thought maybe I was drunk (somehow, despite no alcohol) and didn’t figure it out until they broke in to TV with “BREAKING NEWS! EARTHQUAKE!”. You’re not the only one, especially because why on earth would anyone reasonably expect an earthquake in Toronto? Here in SF, I have no excuse.
I don’t even have teen agers and I have the same issues here. Don’t have clean socks? And that is my fault? 🙂
Knitting always helps. That is why I do it. 🙂
Buying yarn always helps.
I adore that scarf!
It may not have been funny at the time but you seem to have found the humor in it afterward.
9 and 10 sound very familiar. My solution is to not only drink the cold beer, but also to call for a pizza. Those are days when the Universe is trying to tell me to get out of the kitchen. I figured out a year ago to just listen.
I’m very glad to hear that you like the socks even more with the original design details.
Are you going to knit more?
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who forgets the wallet, then the damn bank card and if it’s not those two things it’s the shopping list!!
What yarn did you order to take the edge off?
Hilarious, true post, Stephanie. The comments are also entertaining, especially rams at 3:47 and branda at 4:16. Creative problem-solving at its best!
For Liz at 4:12, just stop doing the housework, already! He isn’t letting you do the work, you’re letting him *not* do it. Unlikely as it sounds, he may not be aware of all the work you do. I had to have that conversation with my spouse early in our marriage, but I only had to have it once. After that he did his fair share.
Teenagers will learn about household appliances, though for some it might not happen until age 30 or so. I did find one way to make a connection, though. Maybe it was because the child was still only 12 and full teen mode hadn’t kicked in. I had decided it was time for my son to do his own laundry, and I was showing him how to operate the washer and dryer.
He claimed that he couldn’t possibly understand anything so complicated. I told him that if he could play Nintendo, he could operate a washer, and if he wanted clean clothes (an iffy proposition, of course), he would have to do it. I decided not to care how his clothes looked, and let discomfort (muddy socks) and public embarrassment (e.g., by the soccer coach) do its work. Mission accomplished.
Mama said there’d be days like this….
Mama was right. Had a similar one myself, yesterday. I can only attribute it to the coming full moon. Yes, it is true. The full moon does affect the craziness around us in wild and crazy ways. If you think about it, it makes sense. Our brains are mostly water, and if the moon’s gravity is strong enough to pull the oceans back and forth, (tides) why could it not affect our silly little brains? There is a reason they call it “Lunacy.”
Anyway, some days, new yarn is better than chocolate. Knit on.
Think of how crazy the G20 traffic/earthquakes would be if you didn’t have knitting? Once again, knitting saved the day. Moreover, I’m surprised your teenagers haven’t done the let’s-take-out-clean-dishes-as-we-need-them-but-not-empty-the-entire-dishwasher-so-the-dirty-dishes-can’t-be-put-in trick. It’s a very accurate way to find out that you own far more (clean) cutlery than actual dishware, and a very effective way to use all available counter-space for dirty dishes… Actually, it’s probably best that they don’t learn that one… 🙂
On those days when everybody is bugging you about stuff you don’t care about (like they’ve lost their socks/keys/homework and demand to know where you’ve hidden it) you now know that you can take your knitting and a torch and crawl inside the dishwasher.
You should get at least a week’s peace before anyone finds you.
Oh dear. I’ve done the wallet thing so many times, that when we went into a grocery store my kids would ask if they were going to be embarrased again.
AND, I am a long-time player of the unload the dishwasher stand-off. THEN, a friend told me she timed herself and it took less than 3 minutes to unload. She decided that she couldn’t be mad about something that didn’t involve blood that took only 3 minutes. She might have a point, I’m still trying to figure out what it is.
CHEERS!!
Loved this blog….I love the ones that I can read to hubby and he laughs along with me. I was supposed to head to Toronto to pick up my daughter to bring her back to Napanee for a friend’s wedding shower but after everyone telling her I’d have a heck of a time getting down to her workplace in Liberty Village and back to the 401 we both thought better of it…it sucks that you can’t even take a train…and how long would it take to get out on a bus. Seriously a bad plan for the G20.
Hmmmm……. a sock with a toe knitted into it. I wonder how it will fit into a shoe.
Hi Stephanie,
I am happy that you are feeling better and also that you did not reach for that beer. I know that would not be a good thing at a time like you had.Lying down, then later making an appointment with your Dr. that would be the smart thing to do.
Please go fo a check-up Steph.
Love, rita
How do you like your signature needles? I have a pair of circular and love them, wish I could afford another!
Love the socks. Let us know who empties the dishwasher.
Really, #1 – #11 don’t matter because of #12. You have made one goregous pair of socks. I love this pattern and keep on thinking it’s too hard to make. Now I know of one actual human being who has knit that particular pattern. I must give it a go.
I was wondering if you had felt the earthquake. 5.0 is respectable. A real one. Shakes the nerves and makes the news and everything! Something to tell the grandkids about, especially since I don’t think anyone was hurt. Just think of it this way: earthquakes are Mother Nature’s way of relieving stress. Must be because she can’t pour herself a beer or go to a yoga class.
I once drove my Mom to the airport, then stopped at grocery store on way home. After paying I dropped my wallet in one of the bags. When I walked into my house, the phone was ringing, it was my father several hundred miles away telling me to go back and get my Mom cause her flight was cancelled. I ran back out, stopped for gas, and oops! no wallet. that was fun. You can’t unpump gas!!
My teenage daughter posted on Facebook that she has broken so many dishes, she can’t believe that I still make her unload!! I will just keep buying more, I will not give in!
Your earthquake was 18k down, which is why you only felt the rolling and nothing serious happened. If it had been on the surface I don’t think much of anything in the city would still be standing.
Knit on, in all stresses and situations. It keeps us sane.
Thanks for the laugh! Hope your day is better today. If not, I hope you have a refrigerator full of cold beer and a great sock to knit.
Wow, you did notice those socks were GREEN with LEAVES — but yeah, good thing you got out of that rut LOL.
Ha! Now you know how it feels to be in a high-rise building in San Diego these past few months! Go to the USGS Earthquake site and see how many 5+ Richter quakes we’ve had. AND I have vertigo, so it’s a double-whammy. Love the socks.
It is a looong time since mine were teenagers, but they had a worse trick;
Raid the dishwasher for ONLY the specific items they wanted!
Until I announced ‘Either empty the damned thing or go without!’. Mothers can be SO unreasonable.
Love the socks and the fact that I live in a country without earthquakes!
I just swooned over eventide…
Classic yarn harlot post, I love the “experiment”. I have 3 teen age girls as well and I do experiments like that all the time, but mostly they leave me depressed. You however are able to turn them into laughs for the world, congratulations!
Oh, goodie. . . more yarn! My solution to everything. . . 🙂
It must be something in the atmosphere. Things have been wacky all over this week!
Wait until your teenagers “move on” and guess who it the culprit at my house? You got it, me!
I can hardly wait to see that your yarn order was!
I have tried this experiment at my office – not emptying the dish rack, not emptying the sink of dirty dishes, etc. I usually cave and deal with it all anyway. Your fortitude is impressive!
That driving sounds really terrible – too bad you could not bike there, but at least you finished the socks ….
I know how you feel about going to the store and not having your wallet. First you panic, then you just about die when you have to tell the cashier what happened. It took months before I would go back and then only after I checked about 10 times that I had my wallet in my purse.
Please tell me I can use “I didn’t take a good enough pre-natal vitamin” as a colourway name! I spit water ALLLLL over my screen.
I was at work when the earthquake struck. Our offices are two old converted farm buildings, and it was very impressive listening to them rattle! Lots of us headed outside, and were relieved to see others outside the other building, because it was unlikely that the furnaces in two buildings were trying to explode at the same time.
I envy you your knitting productivity.
p.s. I don’t envy you the lack of dishwasher emptying going on in your establishment!
I love it! If you have good building codes, a 5 is good for singing Carole King’s “I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet” and no worse.
After all your trips to California was that your first quake? One of my knitting friends in Vermont emailed me immediately; so I asked my daughter in Vermont if she’d felt it. The friend? A bit freaked. The daughter? Didn’t really notice it; eh, whatever. The kicker? They live not only in the same state, but, I found out yesterday, they WORK IN THE SAME BUILDING. (!!)
Small world. And a kid who remembers the Loma Prieta for comparison.
Regarding getting in to ruts, my Dad used to always say: “Everyone gets into ruts. The important thing is to find ruts that you like.”
If you actually developed a prenatal vitamin that would guarantee teenage recognition of dishwasher unloading (and/or loading, for that matter), you’d be a wealthy, wealthy woman. Wealthy enough to afford to have someone else go to the grocery store for dinner. Heh.
May I just point out that following “This has made me wonder if I didn’t take a good enough pre-natal vitamin” with “I went to the store and filled a cart with all I needed” made for an interesting reading experience? 🙂
Seriously Steph?! YOu really thought a teenager would empty the dishwasher, with out being told three times , the final time at very high volume? Really?
Love the socks! When I lived in Salinas, California many years ago I experienced an earthquake while at a stop light. I thought someone was jumping up and down on my car ’til I saw the traffic lights hung on wires were swaying madly. I know the feeling of feeling disturbed during an earthquake. It’s disconcerting. Gosh I love those socks.
The crack about the pre-natal vitamin made me pee my pants.
I’m in Rochester, NY, and I was talking to someone when I got a really bad wave of dizziness/vertigo, and I almost called my doctor, but someone said there was an earthquake and I put two and two together. Glad to know I wasn’t the only one who felt like that!
We don’t have a dishwasher. We somehow managed to raise three children without one. They learned to wash their own dishes by hand. One of my son’s friends brightly announced it was just like camping!
Well. Turning two packages on Petraeus and doing live shots on the roof of a building on THE HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR (100F/39C) doesn’t count — unless you count the two rows of a sweater I knitted during a nausea-inducing edit sesson this morning.
Must knit more.
I said “I’d really like someone else to come up with something for dinner” My brother in law said “Why don’t you let the kids make dinner? We do.” My sister said “Are you crazy? Do you see what happens to our house when the kids make dinner? Why would you wish that on her.”
Maybe I’ll stick with making dinner.
I expect the same applies for doing dishes. Last time my eldest son put dishes in the dishwasher it cost $65 and an interesting discussion with the dishwasher repair person.
8. This has made me wonder if I didn’t take a good enough pre-natal vitamin.
It’s not you. This is a universal feature of teenbeasts. They are in the process of changing from child brains to adult brains which means they have almost no brains at all. There is no telling which (if any) brain is online at any given moment. They will often switch brains in mid-thought and totally derail themselves.
If you’re lucky you’ll all survive this! 😀
With regard to sitting in traffic:
I went to see my Dad last Saturday – over 350 miles round trip -. I ALWAYS take my knitting with me – ya just never know what will happen. As is fate, I decided that since I was driving alone, I wouldn’t have the time/choice to knit, so didn’t take it – only a knitting book.
SIGALERT – due to overturned car/fire/closed freeway for medical-helicopter. Sat on freeway for over an hour. After driving by said accident……I didn’t have such a terrible time afterall. The car looked like a sculpture OF SOME SORT, and post newspaper articles – 4 persons in the car and only one sent out by chopper. sad.
With regard to the socks – DEFINITELY love the color/pattern.
AND with regard to the kids/dishwasher – sounds like hubby saying “If you kids don’t stop playing on the stairs, if you kids don’t stop playing on the stairs, if you kids don’t stop playing on the stairs….. etc. etc. etc. etc.
Had a beautiful STR light weight in glorious shades of green(a Rare Gem) and began Embossed Leaves. I didn’t even get to second sock syndrome; I had first sock syndrome. Anyway, I switched to Wavy Lace socks by Evelyn A. Clark and got along much better. Why? Who knows? The patterns aren’t that much different.
I contemplated coming back to Toronto today to see the ballet Eugene Onegin for the 3rd time. I saw it twice on Saturday(19th). Yikes, if they’re closing down the subways, I’m glad I decided there were no seats left that I liked. I had planned to park my car and use the TTC exclusively(as I did on the weekend). I did SO want to see Greta Hodgkinson dance(sigh). Next season, I guess. Good luck with dishwasher education!
At least you’re not also sick or injured. That would really top it off! Any odd looks from fellow “drivers” during your knitting?
The silver lining to your ‘cloudy’ day is that the socks turned out beautifully, love them. And you didn’t run out of beer.
Teenagers are such fun to live with aren’t they, I frequently stage ‘stand offs’ as they are affectionately referred to around here on the dishwasher, clean laundry taken to your room and put away, tidying up the living area etc etc but no-one else ever gives in! It’s not us it’s them.
It was my birthday yesterday then Julia Gillard stole my limelight by becoming the first Australian female PM! Everyone consequently forgot about me.
It sounds like it was quite a day yesterday. You definitely deserved some yarn!
oh how this post made me laugh! At least you have some very beautiful socks, scarf & beer to help take the edge off.
Stephanie, I think I love you. I’m experiencing the same thing now… did you know that socks and underwear don’t count as laundry? little known fact, thank goodness for 16 y.o.’s.
and @eclair – brilliant!
#5 cracked me up because…it turns out my husband was waiting all last week for me to discover the large bug smashed between the toilet bowl and seat. Seeing me sitting there, he said, “Oh yea, you never lift the lid.” Well, that got me curious. There it was, a big black splat, legs all askew, a obvious trauma for the former insect.
I still don’t know if he just wanted to hear me scream, or he was conducting a test to see who would clean the toilet first.
It’s a wonder to me that the dishes stayed in tact what with all the sahake rattle and rolling going on . You really should have left the city while the G20 was on . It owuld have been an ideal time to sit by a lake and knit , and NO I don’t mean the “”fake lake”” Lord have mercy !!! The socks are loverly.
1. If you HAD ordered yarn, what might you have gotten?
2. Like the Signature needles…
3. You really like the “Spring Tickle” colorway, don’t you?
Once, I did that same thing with the wallet and grocery store, and when I went back the same day to gather all the same groceries again, all the people behind the various counters remembered what I had come in for before and made snarky comments about my quick return for another piece of salmon, another slice of pizza, etc.
If it makes you feel better, I didn’t truly appreciate the purpose of a dishwasher when I was in my teens and early twenties.
It’s only now that I don’t have one that the act of loading and unloading it seems blessedly simple. I would give my eyeteeth for one now. Sigh.
We felt the earthquake all the way down here in Greenville Pa.It shook this huge dress store building in Sharon, a town near us, so much that they had to evacuate it! Maybe you could turn the olives and musturd into some kind of cassarolw ;P
Earthquakes are a joy ride over here. Woohoo!
The socks look cool, btw.
re: dishes…I think it’s time to put some teenagers to work, no if’s and’s or but’s…just do it. 😉
Have a great day
Those are really pretty socks.
Glad to hear you hadn’t run out of cold beer.
Teenagers are funny creatures. G20 summits are not so funny.
G20. Like Amy posted, when they were here in Pittsburgh, unless you could walk to where you wanted to go (which, fortunately, is possible here), you were trapped. My employer closed because you couldn’t get to the main urban campus. Scary people. But on the positive side, I got LOTS of knitting done. Kind of like an enforced vacation. G20 always goes better with beer.
The socks are cool!
Can you just order pizza? That’s my fall back position when something like that happens to me and I have no other options! Besides, you already have beer…
The socks are gorgeous.
Teenagers? I know them well. I once placed a full (overflowing, mind you) waste basket right smack dab in the entrance to my daughter’s bedroom. She would have to scoot sideways to get in or out of her room. It was there for 3 days, before I pitched the trash myself. Then, I welcomed myself to margarita-ville, where I dreamed of yarny goodness. Your socks are amazing. The color is absolutely delicious.
I was wondering if you might have felt the quake. So the world really was shifting under your feet! Good call!
I was in the Seattle earthquake in 2001. My office mate jumped up from his desk and said, “looks like we’re haveing an earthquake!” and took off for a doorway. Being from Colorado, I didn’t know what to do, so I stood in front of a big plate-glass window and watched the cars bounce around in the parking lot (like an idiot). His wife made him apologize to me later.
I was there when one of those G- conferences was held too…nightmare traffic, but some entertaining riots to watch on the nightly news.
As for the dishwasher – when the teenagers come to you about the lack of clean dishes, look mystified and say “oh my goodness, whatever shall we do?”
You’ll amuse yourself, if nothing else.
I almost fell off my chair laughing when I got to #8. That ranks right up there with my favorite blog entry of yours (April 6th, 2008)about Daylight Savings Time, a triple-alarm system, and a very calm hotel desk clerk.
What a smashing way to make lemons into lemonade! And, while admittedly a personal thing, I think finishing a pair of socks and a scarf beats the crap out of making dinner any day.
My husband said the same thing – he thought for a second he was having a stroke (even way down here south of Cleveland). I was a passenger in a car and didn’t feel it. Second earthquake of my life that I haven’t felt. But I’m really okay with that.
Yep, been there with the dishwasher thing. And many similar situations. The princess child, however, wouldn’t have been helped by my having better prenatal vitamins–she’s adopted. Got another solution? What did I do wrong to get a princess?!?
I’ve had the wretched kind of day that you tend to have when your kids are 3, nearly 2 and 5-months. Just looking at those green socks made me feel lighter inside Ü
Now I hear them throwing things… must go!
addit: Caught the 3yo about to throw a frying pan across the room. Good timing, Mummy!
Olives+Balsamic+Mustard=Tapenade. Added bonus: Eat off of crackers, not dishes!
I loved the bit about prenatal vitamins. Is anyone making book on what color Indigo Dragonfly would make that yarn? 😎
I’m wondering why the universe only disapproved of the G20 with a 5.0 earthquake? Certainly they deserve a bigger # for the maladies they gift to this planet!
And speaking of teenagers, my non-morning-person-son slept through the March ’93 quake that a lot of us here in Portland thought was awesome. The epicenter was about 34 miles south of here, about 5:45 a.m.; 5.6 on the Richter scale. Move ahead about 7 years; said son in college in Claremont CA; I rec’d an email that morning with his exclamations about how awesome the 3.4 quake in the Nevada desert felt. He must have been up studying at the time of the quake, in the wee hours of the morning. Good news, he graduated with great grades from a marvelous college! Proud mom, but still not sure how he did so well on so little sleep!
Beautiful socks! Sensuous looking scarf! Great laughs!
Oh how funny – I’m making those very same socks!! Mine are blue/lavender/green. It’s a pretty pattern – I haven’t made it to the funky toe yet though.
I have very similar teenager issues. I have stopped entering daughter no.2’s bedroom at all. She complained that I was intruding on her privacy. It can’t be long at all now till she runs out of underwear and socks – as they are all dirty all over the floor. I don’t even open the blinds or air the room – my 11 year old complains that it smells bad when he walks by…..I’m waiting. What I really need is for a couple of her schoolfriends to come over and say it’s gross. That could do the trick 🙂
I think you may be in Tokyo.
1. 4 hours/ 30 km, sounds about right,
2. earthquakes,
3. I am doing an experiment. My husband’s shirt has been on the bathroom floor for one week. This morning he left his pajamas on top of it.
I read about the quake yesterday and it immediately made me wonder whether you were near enough to have felt that. I’m trying a pre-emptive strike on the teenager issue while I still have the upper hand. Mine are 13 and 11 and we’re currently drilling them to put dirty dishes in the machine (as opposed to stacking everything on the worktop) and to at least put laundry in the hamper (as opposed to everywhere else). It does seem to work reasonably well so we’re sticking to it for now. For the Harlot-household you might care to ceck out the Moroccan style of serving food: one huge dish – the pan you cook the food in works fine – in the middle of the table and spoons all around :-)))
Ah I had a roommate like that. It got so bad with all of her dirty dishes in the sink I almost stacked them in her bed. A co-worker had to talk me out of that but I was out of that apartment in a blinding flash when the lease was up.
Have another beer first, and then order some yarn – should result in minimal edge (speaking from experience)…
My parents felt vibrations from the earthquake in Buffalo.
I had a similar grocery store experience this week – cart full of groceries, three small kids, no bank card. After running home to get it, I added ice cream to the cart. You do what you need to do to get through the day. 🙂
Lovely socks Stephanie–green is my favorite color so I’m glad to see the green projects continue.
Having read the comments, I’ve made an assumption and come to a conclusion:
Assumption: Most–if not all– comments are from knitters, spinners, etc.
Conclusion: Wool fumes are responsible for the behavior of our husbands and children.
(Rhonda’s comment made me laugh out loud and wonder if we’re married to the same man!)
I felt that you must know that I now know that my two teenage daughters are “normal” (if there is such a thing…). I have spent too much time wondering what is wrong with them that they can not grasp the concept of emptying the dishwasher. Apparently they just are doing what they are supposed to and expected to do. What a relief! I’m going to assume that this behavior is also normal when it comes to taking out the garbage or replacing toilet paper when the roll is empty. Thank you for setting my mind at ease! 😉
What a day you had!! I love reading your blog….makes me laugh and I can really identify with your world….glad to hear your teenagers are similar to mine! Happy knitting!
My boys would say they couldn’t empty the dishwasher because they don’t know where things go. To which I answered, funny, you seemed to have no problem finding them when you got them dirty! I periodically yelled from the kitchen, No dinner tonight – we have no silverware! They scrambled to their rooms to retrieve said dining utensils. They are grown and away from home, I miss the good ol’ days!
love both your finished items! and the earthquake was quite odd, felt it all the way down here in Columbus, OH, felt same as you, sick, dizzy, pass out, nausea style! ugh!
I spy Signature needles. Don’t you just love them! I have 1 pair, I want them all, (champagne taste on a beer budget).
Yes, the G20 here in Pittsburgh was surely inconvenient, to say the least. I stocked up on good reading material (translated: mysteries), knit and crochet projects, knew we had plenty of food, and just buried myself in a cocoon here. I do confess I turned on the tube to see what the news showed of those who thought they had to further disrupt life with their antics and demonstrations. We also wondered why it was not done online, though there were suggestions of putting all the delegates on an ocean liner in the middle of nowhere.
Your socks are gorgeous, though way beyone my abilities at this point. I am slowly progressing to thingss that aren’t “square.”
(Why are you preparing meals if there are no dishes to eat on? Hint!!)
Joe took the bank card? That’s the only reason my card is ever missing.
For even more crazy fun, don’t change the toilet paper roll for them.
Gosh you are fast! I started my Embossed Leaves more than a month ago and haven’t finished the first one yet (umm, I did finish a sweater instead).
Oh, #9…I have two toddlers and am forever forgetting to hide my wallet. Several times I’ve ended up shopping without any cards. Crying sometimes follows. I feel your pain. The socks are lovely…don’t knit socks much but I may knit these. Have a good weekend!
Welcome to our shaky old world
Cathy from California
There is hope with the dishwasher. My daughter who has finished college and is out on her own comes by once a week for family dinner. This week was a little crazy at my house and the dishes were not all taken care of. She walked in and proceeded to unload and load the dishwasher and wash the pots and pans. I asked her why she was doing it and she said that she could not stand to have her kitchen a mess and it was running over to my house. I had to smile because this was a kid that never loaded the dishwasher or cleaned a pot or pan no matter how many she used to make a meal. There is hope but it may be when they move out and have to really deal with a messy kitchen. There are lot of smile moment these days that relate to things that I used to pull my hair out over. They do grow up.
Knitting while driving, in overwhelming heat – now you have a taste of what life is like in Doha!
#8 is my favorite, I have a feeling that I will be borrowing that statement!
Glad to hear, that no matter where you live in this world, teenagers are the SAME!!!! Thanks for always making me laugh.
Pretty socks. Very fetching. If I’d remembered to take a glass out of my own dishwasher, I’d salute you!
when in doubt, lie down and order more yarn
My friend did that once — left the stuff sitting in the dishwasher. For over a week. They too ran out of dishes, and the kids wanted to eat out because there were no clean dishes. So they did — but she made them pick up the check out of their allowance!
They never forgot to empty the dishwasher again. I think one of them had to miss buying a new vid-game because of the bill.
Love the socks. And nice to see the scarf isn’t green!
Here in southeastern Michigan (about 40 miles west of Detroit), I was sitting in my wheeled office chair on the third floor and thought that I was having some sort of breakdown. An hour later, someone who’d been in a meeting on the seventh floor stopped by and said that the shaking had been really intense up higher. The news reports here indicated that people on upper floors felt it more keenly than did people at ground level.
In our house (two adults), he loads the dishwasher (because the spatial relationships necessary to do this well are beyond me), and I unload. Very simple system.
I really appreciate the way you turn your aggravations into our entertainment, and loved your prenatal vitamin comment. I felt like that for years, but yesterday I went by the house at lunch and found my son (age 24) sweeping the roof! And cleaning the gutters while he was up there!
I was in Waterloo, ON when the ground was shaking. I thought the guy next to me was bouncing his leg and kept giving him dirty looks.
Here at Chez Gail both the teenagers and the man in the house refuse to load a completely empty dishwasher, piling dirty dishes on top of an empty dishwasher. There must be a missing synapse in the brains of teenagers and men–the synapse that makes the hand move to grab dishwasher handle and open it!
Oh my goodness, I know what you mean about the dishwasher. I live with my sister and, after she threw a particularly dish-intensive Cinco De Mayo party for her friends, I decided I’d see how long it’d take before she cleaned it up. I bought takeout for a month before I finally broke down and cleaned the kitchen myself :-/. Cheers, comrade.
I TOTALLY GET TAKING THE EDGE OF BY ORDERING YARN
it makes such good sense…
That definitely calls for more yarn.
I TOTALLY get the day you had! The kind that makes us grateful for night! LOL! Love the socks – you’re my inspiration to pull out that book again and work a new pattern.
I would love to know what the needles are that the scarf is on! I’ve been on a search for needles with “sharp” points.
Oh I can so relate to this post…two years ago my daughter and I spent 6 days in the hospital between labor, c-section delivery of my grand-daughter and her recovery. I spent the nights “sleeping” on a fold out “bed” in her room. As we drove home from the hospital, I told her that all I wanted was a nap on a real bed. Walked in the door, went to the bathroom, washed my hands, turned around, no towel, open the closet – dirty laundry piled 2 feet above the top of the basket. Okay, go to kitchen to get a glass of water, open cabinet, no glasses, reach for dishwasher, it’s locked, okay, open door and discover that the load that I had put in before I left for the hospital at 4am was still in there, UNDONE. Mind you I didn’t start it because I didn’t want to awaken everybody else. Turns out neither my husband (now understandably ex-husband) nor my son bothered to start or unload the dishwasher in the 6 days we had been gone.
Took laundry to laundromat conveniently located next to pizza & liquor store and multi-tasked:
Washed clothes, ate and drank myself out of potential murder charges.
“This has made me wonder if I didn’t take a good enough pre-natal vitamin”—snort snort!!!
Nice socks, too. I wonder how many of us would admit to knitting in traffic? (Only when the vehicle is stopped, of course.) (More or less.)
LOL, sounds like a normal day! I’ve been known to refuse to cook because the clean dishes weren’t put away and the dirty ones loaded. Starving teen-age males sure perk up at that one. I’ve also been known to clean bedrooms. Anything not of value to ME gets trashed. One male child was down to a bed, a dresser, and clothes. His psycho counselor gave me a high-five in front of him when he complained about it. Love-and-logic works, just stick to your guns.
Liz of, Liz at June 24, 2010 4:12 PM, you are enabling your husband, that’s not healthy for either one of you, stop.
Isn’t it great that we have knitty-type activities to fall back on when we’re having One Of Those Days? Buying yarn is a great coping mechanism, as long as the bill isn’t large enough to … add more stress. Question for you, Stephanie: when grafting two halves of a scarf not knitted in stockinette, how does one graft them together smoothly? I will be facing this situation soon, so any advice would be gratefully appreciated. (Knitting the “Kernel” scarf from Knitty archives.) Thanks, Dar
Next time your day is going the way this one did……….lock yourself in your bedroom and spend the day knitting!!
The full moon explains it all!
#5. LOL I’ve been running the same experiment in my home…three days now. I think the girls may be using my secret stash of paper products reserved when power outages.
Dude! You bought yarn? If you, of all people, can’t just call the manufacturer and get it gratis then they don’t understand the word ‘marketing’.
She who dies with the most stash wins. Eh?
It could have been worse.. imagine if you had had NO COLD BEER!!!!!
Considering your day, it’s a wonder you didn’t just buy yourself a yarn shop. And only one beer? I’d’ve had a shot or two. Beautiful socks. Makes me want to start knitting ’em.
I raised two boys and they also had the dishwasher thing going on. Now I discover one actually does all the cooking and dishwashing for his wife and son. Odd, at my house he had neither skills. Hmm I know I took killer vitamins but perhaps they had something missing. I laughed out loud all through this post but most especially at the dinner planning. I once hear a state senator express the same thought but she only had a head of iceberg lettuce.So glad the earthquake caused no harm. We had one once and my teenage boys hearing they had to get out of bed and come to a safer place had very different reactions. One jumped into his pants like a fireman, the other said ,” Oh thanks goodness I thought it was a dream.” Thanks for your post and may today be easy on you.
Next time – to identify a possible stroke:
A bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
S *Ask the individual to SMILE.
T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
eg. “It is sunny out today.”
R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
AND/OR another test: Ask the person to stick out their tongue. If the tongue is “crooked”, if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.
I expect that if a person is by themselves, then a mirror would be helpful.
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke…totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized and then getting the patient to medical care within 3 hours.
If everyone who reads this e-mail sends it to 10 people; at least one life will be saved.
Hope this helps.
Happy knitting,
Janey
(Sorry that I do not have any short, snappy solutions to recognizing or fighting an earthquake.)
I was in my vintage 70’s VW when I felt my first big earthquake. My instant reaction was “I’ve got to get rid of this %#$&^#! piece of junk car.”. Took me a few minutes to realize it wasn’t the car, because the trees, traffic lights, electric poles, etc were all swaying.
I also played the don’t-wash-dishes game with my boyfriend one time. After a week, I knew he was a goner.
Welcome to my world. This morning I drove into our local village to get an order of minnows for some guests that were going fly-out fishing only to find that a train had broken down across the only RR crossing and I couldn’t reach the bait shop. Ran down to the marina and phoned the bait shop who said that they would have somebody drive the minnows down to the tracks and we could do some kind of transfer between train cars. Except that they didn’t have anybody there to drive so they had to send the minnows by boat from the bait shop to the marina. With double bagging the minnows and transporting by boat and car (not train or they’d be dead) I missed the first flight but managed to catch the second flight.
Result: minnows and fishermen are united to form a strong front in the battle to catch the biggest fish on Trapline Lake, Minaki, Ontario.
The Chile and Haiti earthquakes were on the same longitude. You guys are about 3 degrees west of it. Isn’t that interesting? The Deepwater Horizon Disaster is about 15 degrees away, maybe less.
That scarf is incredibly beautiful. So are the socks but I like the scarf most.
As far as the dishwasher goes, just tell someone to unload it. Set up a little schedule and be done with it. Waiting for someone to do it on their own is a waste of time with normal teenagers, and will only make you mad. Just set up a schedule and let it go.
You had an earthquake? How STRANGE!!! I live in California and we have them from time to time-but not in several years. As we all know, the more time between quakes, the more likely the next one will be bad. But I was not aware that they ever occurred on the East Coast, and that far north. Live and learn!
You need to find out where the fault line is in relation to your home, and study up a little on what to do if one happens again. Most adults used to rely upon standing in a doorway, because the framing on the doorway was thought to provide more support for you, to keep the roof, upper floor, etc. from falling all over you.
However, like taking care of babies, there is probably a brand new and better way of protecting yourself from injury during an earthquake. I only have the 1950’s info. I am probably outdated on that. Yes-our telephone book has a very informative (and to-the-point) section on what to do if caught in an earthquake. Yes-I need updating. The stand-in-the-door-jamb thing is not mentioned.
As long as you don’t live too near a fault line, earthquakes are kind of cool. Light fixtures sway gently and the floor ripples a little. You get to stop working and marvel over it. You have something to talk about for several days. When I was a child, we got to sit under our desks at school, which we thought was pretty wild. We had earthquake drills from time to time, in which we stopped school work and just sat under our desks with our heads covered. Of course, earthquakes can be treacherous if you live near a fault line and it is a severe quake. I mostly lived about 60 miles away from the closest fault line, and so they were never serious.
On to another topic: I like the Eventide scarf, but am wondering why this, like so many scarves are made in 2 pieces and grafted together in the center. I can see it with some patterns, as in the design has very pronounced direction and will look awkward when worn, if knitted in one continuous piece. However, the design in this one might look okay as one piece. Since I am only looking at pictures, I may be mistaken.
My reason for bringing this up is that I think grafting is a big pain.
To protect yourself and your family in the future, check out earthquake safety online. (I assume it is not in your telephone book.) You will then know what to do if you are caught in another one.
At my local natural foods co-op, if you are an owner, you can use your owner share as collateral for your groceries should you forget your wallet. You then have to come back within three days to pay. It’s a neat feature they don’t like to advertise too much, for obvious reasons.
Sounds like a pizza delivery day!
My daughter offered to do the gorcery shopping with her bf one day (they were cooking dinner and offerred to take my list as well). We had just come back from a week or so away so the frige and cupboards were empty. They got to the checkout and unloaded, scanned and bagged 2 cartloads of groceries only to have my credit card declined*. They called me to come to the rescue and I whipped out the back-up card only to realize it was expired (the new card was sitting unopened on my desk). Luckily I had my checkbook (with one check left!). As we paid and left, my daughter commented that she had never been so embarrassed in her life. I assured her she was young yet and had a lot of much more embarrassing moments to look forward to.
*the card company froze the card to “protect” us because my husband had ordered a new computer that morning. Since we didn’t call them to tell them of our order (even tho the order was in our name, delivered to our address, and well within the available credit limit of the card) they decided it must be fraud. After a rather intense phone call to a supervisor, the company agreed that someone should have contacted us to check on the charge before freezing the card.
I made those same socks in a beautiful lavender bamboo yarn. They are my favorite socks. I show people the lovely toe. My teen daughters do not do anything unless specifically told. So I assigned them days to do the kitchen. That seems to work. Good luck
Dishwasher? What’s a dishwasher? I’m the dishwasher in my house. Now I haven’t found a way of knitting and washing up at the same time yet. I just can’t cope with putting soapy, wet hands on my knitting. (If you’ve solved this problem, please share how). However I have found a way of doing as little washing up as possible: only have one plate each and only wash up once a day. I suggest you try this experiment. Leave out one plate each and then throw out the rest, or if you’re not brave enough to do that, then box up the rest of them, hide them in the car and drive out to a yarn store miles and miles away and get yarn. I can’t promise it’ll stop arguments like “she’s using my plate!”, when you get home, but it will give you more knitting time, some peace and quiet, and a yarn fix.
Your socks are absolutely gorgeous. I aspire to reach a higher level at knitting. I’ve always done uncomplicated knitting and have never mastered lace. My attempts have been terrible. I get holes where they’re not supposed to be and rarely in an attractive pattern. Then I get different numbers of stitches on every row and I don’t understand how the stitches should go when I have to rip out and redo. I’m saving all my disaster swatches so one day I can sew them up and make a really, really wierd holey blanket.
I’ve just started my first ever pair of socks and reached the scary stage of turning the heel. Have you got any tips for newbie sock knitters like me?
Reeny
PS: You could dispose of the dishwasher itself while everyone is out, then tell them the dishwasher fairy was so hurt by it not being emptied out and being covered by dirty pots, that she magicked it away and gave it to a family that would look after it properly.
I am glad you bought yarn. Some days that is just the best thing you can do. My world has spun ever so slightly out of orbit this past month. I may have ordered a wee bit of yarn too. Just enough for a couple of tank tops, at least only that much today. It’s not like I bought enough to add sleeves or anything like that.
Hang in there!
Yes it was an earthquake and I felt my house move while having an afternoon nap. I’m not driving anywhere near downtown T-dot at the moment, at least not until all the wonderful exalted leaders leave town. This too shall pass…ciao
It’s nice to know other people have the same family as I do…they are just clueless with regards to dishwashers, hanging towels straight and putting a roll of toilet paper in the holder. I once tried to out-wait them on the toilet paper…went over a month before I’d had enough.
I love the new socks. Great combination of colour and pattern. The remark about the prenatal vitamins was sooo funny!
#8 is my favorite!
Well, as long as you’re stuck at home, here’s a link to a fantastic episode of Backyardigans (great kids show, for those not familiar): “For the Love of Socks!” (cut and paste URL) motionempire.com/Watch_The_Backyardigans_Escape_From_The_Tower_-2009-_Movie_Online_for_Free_99790_1643.html There are 4 episodes in one; the one you want starts at 23:05 (or 24:03 w/o the credits). Some great quotes: “Making socks is the greatest job ever!” “Oh, for the love of socks!” “The world may keep on spinning, there could still be fish in the sea, but a life without socks is not the life for me!” “Let’s sock and roll!” In fact, this episode may help you enlist children in folding laundry.
The earthquake was felt in parts of Boston too! Sorry about the insane traffic and things going wrong. I hear there’s a big fence all around the G8 (or G20) or whatever meeting it is.
“This has made me wonder if I didn’t take a good enough pre-natal vitamin.”
I stopped right there & howled. Oh, you are right on the money! My kids are now grown with kids of their own, and this shall come to roost on them, too.
Several years ago, our local health department decided to have a drive-thru clinic for flu shots for disabled people. Being disabled, I thought this would be a great idea. Until I got there and the line was 2 miles long at 10 in the morning. I was in line for 3 hours. I’d turn off the engine, knit on the sweater for about 10 minutes, turn on the engine, move 10 feet and repeat. Thank goodness it was in October. And I did finish the back of my sweater.
Stephanie,
I read this post to my husband on Friday. Thank you for giving us both a good laugh – he loved the prenatal vitamin and condiment sections (he does the cooking at our house). We had spent the morning at the funeral of a 22 year old who had dealt with cancer for 5 years. The laughs did us both good.
I can relate. Just had a “conversation” with my 13-year old about us not having any food. She wants breakfast and can’t find anything to eat. Why don’t you make some toast? “Don’t like it.” How about a bagel? “Don’t have any.” How about some cereal? “Don’t have any good ones.” How about an apple or banana? “Don’t feel like it.” How about some raisin bread? “Only the heel is left. We don’t have anything I like.” I’m going shopping later, have you written what you want on the list? “No.” Why don’t you do that? “I’m too hungry.”
You can’t argue with them and you can’t even try to help them. I must have gotten the same prenatal vitamins as you.
BTW – my kids just take what clean dishes they want out of the dishwasher and leave the rest in it for someone else to put away.
Please don’t reply to this, because then I know for sure that someone else realizes I’m a dumbass, but I feel your pain about the wallet. I drove 5 hours this past weekend to pick up one of my grandsons, feeling quite boastful about how fast I got there, and that I didn’t have to make one pitstop. I realized I had left my wallet 300 miles behind, at home, when I tried to buy said grandson some pizza. No checkbook, no cards, no money, and yes, no drivers license. Needless to say, I drove back the next day very carefully, never going over the speed limit.
About that dishwasher business. . .that strikes me as funny to no end. At my house I proudly declared my “strike/vacation” from performing ANY house work for the entire summer. Yep, no cooking, cleaning, laundry, dishes, NADA. Some things appear to be catching on, others I just watch in horror and have to cover my eyes as I walk by them. I own a 14 year old son and a 44 year old husband. I do have hope that they can still learn to take care of themselves.
Here’s another teen age trick…The laundry room is in my apartment. My granddaughter will come down, open the dryer full of her clothes and sort through to find the one item she wants, and leave the rest in the machine.
Here’s another teen age trick…The laundry room is in my apartment. My granddaughter will come down, open the dryer full of her clothes and sort through to find the one item she wants and leave the rest in the machine. DRIVES ME NUTS.
Stephanie, I owe you an apology…I thought how could anyone go to the store and forget their bank card, must be a bone head… well the fates (dam them) heard me and well..I drove to the store, 15mins, loaded up my cart put everything on the cash, looked for my ever present wallet, and lo it was not there. GRRRRRRRRR. Beg store to not put everything back while I went home and got my wallet. Oh and did I mention I also have a 3 year old who enjoyed the journey along with me. So much for a quick stop to the shop. Sorry Stephanie…
My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!