The Demise Of Words

Do you ever wonder what happens to words? Like whatever the word for “kick ass” was in Greek which no one remembers and no one ever uses anymore?  Are they just laid to rest in Webster’s and that’s that?  How does it happen, this demise of a word?  Is it immediate or a slow attrition?  Do people suddenly stop using a word and immediately take up with the next big thing, or do they continue to insert it here and there in conversation hoping they can keep the old word alive because, well, they just can’t get used to the new word?  Take “fetching” for example. At some point in time, like when men wore hosiery, this was the word. Some guy in tights would say to his similarly tights-clad fellow, “Behold yonder fetching wench!”.  Which at some point was replaced with:  “Dude. Check out that hottie!”  How did this happen?  Hosiery ditched for socks, fetching ditched for hot? Ponderous, man.  Really ponderous.

Well, Fetching is back.  At least in the knitting sense.  I started my second pair in Debbie Bliss Merino Aran – Color: Chocolate Brown.  These are for my mom.  She is impossible to buy gifts for (so this is her late Mother’s Day gift) and she says she would like a pair of fingerless gloves for walking on the beach.  Hopefully I can finish them by the weekend….. 

Fun From Switzerland

More fun mail arrived Friday!

Looky what I got from Kasia who lives in Switzerland!  Some lovely chocolate which is made near where she lives, a postcard which shows her town, lovely pink yarn (a future beaded scarf maybe?) and the little blue circles at the bottom are earrings she crocheted herself!  Fantastic! 

Groovy Swiss stamps!

I have a “thing” for stamps, so I just had to show these stamps that arrived on her package.  Silly me, I loved these almost as much as I loved what was inside!  Simple minds….

Thanks again Kasia!  Everything was lovely and you really made my day!  Now I’m planning something fun for you…..

Check it! I’m Knittin’ Socks!

Oh crap.  Just what I needed – yet another reason to spend entirely too much time knitting, thinking about knitting, and buying yarn.  But look how cute!  I think I finally get why everyone’s so seemingly obsessed with sock knitting all of a sudden.

This is the On-Your-Toes toe-up sock pattern from this summer’s issue of IK.  After getting that yummy sock yarn from Jeanie I kept going back and forth about which pattern to try.  I wasn’t sure this would be a good one for a beginner (’cause it has a crazy looking cast-on) but the super-helpful Wendee who posted about her toe-up socks over at the Interweave Knits Knit-Along assured me that it was easy enough for a beginner to attempt.  I figured what the hell.  I’m not doing anything but laundry and sitting on my fat butt and gimpy knee on the couch anyway, why not give it a shot?  Expand my horizons and all that good stuff.

The Eastern cast-on is super fussy but, magically, it only took me 3 tries to figure it out.  Not sure what’s going on there.  I don’t think I’ll be able to duplicate that little bit of trickery for the next sock so easily, but if I did it once, I’ll be able to do it again (I hope).  It looks gorgeous even if I perhaps didn’t do it exactly right.  Who cares as long as it looks nice and doesn’t fall apart, right?  I won’t tell if you don’t.  Now the increases are done and it’s smooth sailing up to the heel.  I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.  I’m also noticing some groovy lopsided color action working up on the top of my sock in the ribbing portion.  Me likey!

Photo Friday – May 25, 2007

Look what came in the mail on Wednesday!

The extremely thoughtful and very lovely Jeanie from the SKC sent me a little gifty to keep me occupied while I’m laying around on the couch with my gimpy knee.  2 skeins of Sweet Feet Sock yarn (colors: Shasta Daisy & Bluebonnet)!  I don’t really knit socks yet so this is the perfect reason to start.  I’ve been feverishly digging through all my knitting mags and online to try to find a good beginner’s pattern.  Anyone have any good suggestions?

This totally made my day!  Thanks so much Jeanie!  You’re the best :)

Knit.1 Summer 2007 – My Faves

Look what came in the mail yesterday!
(More stuff here.)

And these are some of the patterns I liked the best……

Love this tank! Yum! Except for the set in bust area.  Don’t know how I feel about constructing those……

This tank is super cute! I could do without the gold hot pants though. And I’m sure my thighs (and the general public) could do without me wearing them too!

This one’s kind of cute, if plain. Seems like it might be kind of flattering though (at least if you’re a size 0 like this model!).  And cozy. Gotta have the cozy.  Maybe a little ribbon added to the waist area to flash it up……

Very classic! I’ve never actually crocheted a garment though, so this could be a challenge for me as far as gauge and fit.

Cute skirt! Not my colors though. Maybe reds & browns…..

This is *so* not me! But for some reason I love how it looks on the model – especially with the tights and the boots. I don’t know that I’d ever make it because it would just be an awful lot of work and would probably look about as good as the hot pants on me, but for some reason I’m still drawn to it.

Which ones do you like?

Going The Distance

 

 This week I’m in limbo. Living somewhere between not feeling bad, but not feeling good, I’ve been working on something that requires what feels like miles of P2K2 ribbing.  Boring you say?  Maybe in the usual time and the usual place.  Instead I find myself thinking back to the days when I used to run.  We’re not talking marathons or anything, and definitely no speed records here, but a good 5 miles every morning way back when.  There’s a point, when you’re running for distance, at which the rhythm of your feet matches the rhythm of your heart, everything pumping together in harmony and you feel like you could go on like that forever, lost in your runner’s high, thinking of nothing but the moment that you’re in, the goodness of your body and the joy in movement.  Maybe this is the thing called zen, or meditation; a stillness of your soul.  Knitting miles of ribbing the past two days, those old feelings have resurfaced.  The monotonous P2K2, instead of slowly squeezing out the joy in knitting, recreates those feelings that running used to give me.  I’m feeling still and meditative.  Peaceful.  No worry about the throbbing in my knee or when exactly I’ll be “normal” again.  Nothing but the rhythm of my fingers, my heart, the yarn and the stitches moving softly from one needle to the other.  The balm for my soul that I’ve been needing.  And that’s what’s keeping me going the distance. 

A New Knitalong – Yay!!!

Oh boy!  A new KAL!  Thanks so much Robin for setting it up!  This is really exciting – you can check it out here.  It’s for the book I mentioned a while back (go here) from Joan McGowan-Michael called Knitting Lingerie Style.  Very cool!  Now I’ve just got to decide what to knit first…..  Shouldn’t be hard to pick something that hubby will like :)

The Cartilage Is Half Full

I’ve always been one of those people who , when asked if the glass is half full or half empty, will smile brightly and say, “Well, it’s half full of course!”, while inside I’m secretly screeching, “Half Empty!  It’s half empty you numbskull!  Just look at it!  H-a-l-f-e-m-p-t-y!!!!.” At least that’s how I imagine I’ve always been.  There’s this dichotomy of wanting to give the “right” answer, yet feeling deeply that it’s really not what I actually feel.  So imagine my surprise on Thursday last week when I woke up from the anesthesia shivering uncontrollably and the doctor, noticing I was waking up, came over to tell me about my procedure.  He explained what he had seen in my knee and told me that he’d taken out half of the meniscus pad on the medial (inside) area of my knee.  I mumbled drunkenly, “That’s not too bad?”, hoping he’d say he’d seen worse and that this was by no means a big deal.  He confirmed that it “wasn’t too bad” and I’d be fine.  In the seconds before I burst into tears (the nurse told me this was a normal reaction to anesthesia, but I still felt like I had just finished dead last in the ultimate tough gal competition) I thought, “Only half.  That means I’ve still got half and the whole pad on the other side.  That’s o.k.  I’ll be o.k.” It was like some kind of breakthrough.  For once I’d seen the glass as half full, seen that I’d been lucky to have the half left that I did, instead of crying about the half that was lost.  Maybe all my pessimism had been somehow stored inside that little half-moon piece of cartilage they’d taken out!  Though I’m not feeling 100% now, I do like this new feeling that I’ll be o.k. and the cartilage, instead of being half gone, is really half there.  Half full.

Since I am only able to hobble a little from room to room right now, I spend a lot of time watching movies/tv and sitting with my foot up.  So I’ve been able to start another Lion Brand Pound of Love afghan for the same gal that I made the pink flower hat for.  I also swatched for the Back To School U-Neck Vest from Stefanie Japel’s Fitted Knits Book for the Fitted Knits Along, using Cascade 220 in Silver Grey.  And I managed to block a couple things in between.  I have this whole week off from work and honestly, I’m glad, because I don’t really feel up to being at work right now.  I need a little “me” time and for once I’m going to get it.  Life is good.

Until I’m back to posting regularly, I hope that you are all finding your glasses to be half full!  Or even better: overflowing!  Cheers….. 

Robot Knee Installed Today

So later on this morning I go in to have my robot knee installed. Actually, they’re just doing arthroscopic surgery, but I figure that if they’re going to be rooting around in my knee like that, the least they could do is install some bionic parts. Being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound sounds pretty kick ass. I’m nervous, because I’ve never had surgery before and the whole idea makes me pretty squeamish. But at least I’ll be knocked out for it. I was originally under the impression that I’d only be numbed from the waist down and would be awake for everything. Eeewww! No thanks! That would just be creepy. Anyway, it will be at least over the weekend for my recovery time, maybe more (I’m taking next week off of work), so I won’t be blogging much and if I don’t respond to all you faithful readers right away, it’s just ’cause I’m away from the computer. But I’ll be back soon! And hopefully with a lot of knitting accomplished too! I’ll keep you posted on the robot knee installation…..and any super powers that develop.

Oh, and if you’re curious where I’ve taken Gnuman the Gnome, you can read about his adventures over here.  Have fun! 

Seven Random Facts

Robin tagged me for this meme yesterday. It’s my first one, so this is kind of exciting for me!!

The Rules
The way it works is – each person tagged gives seven random facts about themselves along with the rules of the game, as well as tagging seven others by listing their names as part of the blog post and leaving a blog comment for the tagged individuals to let them know that they’ve been tagged.

So here’s my random facts:

1. I have never smoked a cigarette. Ever. Not a single puff. Not even in my wild college days. Never even wanted to give it a try. You’d think that having 2 parents who smoked (thoughtfully, they always smoked outside) would have set me up for at least a little curiosity, but for some reason it really didn’t.

2. Some of you who have read my blog before may know this fact, but it’s still kind of interesting to those who might be “new”. My husband and I went to first grade together and later on high school, but didn’t get together until our ten year high school reunion. You can read my previous post about it here. It’s still so weird to me to think I married someone I went to high school with! But I’m so glad I did :)

3. I might be a twin. I was adopted when I was 4 1/2 (which is a random fact in itself I guess) and my adoptive parents have always been under the impression that I had a twin brother. I was born out of the country (another random fact) and they think he was left behind with my biological mother’s family. Sometimes it feels weird to think that there are people out there that I’ll never know who might look like me, think like me, or even act like me. I know I’ve got a real family here who loves me, but sometimes I still feel wistful about the holes in my past.

4. I’m mildly obsessive-compulsive. And I don’t mean in that cute way that people describe Type A personalities. I’ve never been diagnosed, but my daily life has always contained rituals that I feel must be performed or else I get a deep and distinct sense of foreboding. I read once that obsessive-compulsive people feel this way but to such an extreme that they often can’t function normally.  For me it’s never been too much of an issue, and for some reason the need to do certain things has lessened as I’ve gotten older.  I know – I’m a freak!

5. I can wiggle my ears.  I don’t really remember “teaching” myself to do this.  But I guess when you’re an only child you find your entertainment where you can!

6. I have an extra tooth.  When I had to get my wisdom teeth taken out they took a bunch of x-rays and discovered that I had an extra tiny tooth up near my sinus.  They told me they didn’t want to take it out for fear of damaging my sinus, so they’d just let it descend or not, and deal with it later.  I’ve been to a few different dentists since then as I’ve moved around, and after they take the films the first thing they always exclaim is, “Oh!  Look at that cute little tooth!”.  I feel kind of special.

7. I never went to my high school prom.  I went bowling with some friends.  At the time I tried to tell myself that I didn’t want to go, that the whole thing was lame, and that I didn’t care anyway.  But it was a lie.  To this day I regret not finding some way to go.  I could have gone with my girlfriends even!  Lots of girls do that nowadays.  I know a lot of people who went will say it isn’t worth regretting, that I didn’t miss out on anything, but I still feel like I did.  High school wasn’t fun for me.  No dates, few friends, too much studying.  Oh well.  I guess I’ve made up for it since then!  I’ve had a few good adventures along the way….. 

 So here’s the part where I pass it along!  Tag, you’re it….

R. Darling

Yarnaholic

Lady Morgiana

Pen

The Sewing Geek

Stephanie

Jodi

Gnome Is Where The Heart Is….

Gnuman the Gnome arrives on my doorstep with assorted goodies

The Knitting Gnome Swap has begun!  And, lucky me, I got the first gnomie visitor!!  Thank you Rae for all the wonderful goodies and for choosing my name nomination (Gnuman) from the first gnome contest!  I’m a little nervous that I won’t be able to show my new visitor a good time while he’s here.  I’m scheduled for knee surgery this Thursday and will be laid up for at least a week so I won’t be very good company – boo-oo-oo! – (that is, unless he doesn’t mind watching Spongebob and eating Sour Patch Kids all day……)  Plus, I got a little hungover on my trip out of town this weekend and poor R. Darling had to drive his queasy girl all the way home (5+ hours) from eastern WA.  He’s such a saint!  So, needless to say, Gnuman and I won’t be drinking any margaritas or dancing on any tables to Joan Jett tunes while he’s here.  But he seems like a quiet kind of guy, so perhaps he’ll be content to meet our puppies, visit the waterfront and go out to dinner with us.  I’ve only got 5 days with him though, so at least if I’m too boring, he’ll be on to his next stop soon enough.

Photo Friday – May 11, 2007

January 6, 1996 – Me dancing with the Best Man (who is not my husband BTW)
First time bridesmaid and maid-of-honor at my best friend’s wedding

As promised, here is the last photo in my bridesmaid themed set of Photo Fridays.  This is actually the best photo I have of my outfit.  My best friend’s wedding, and my best bridesmaid’s outfit and this is the best I can do.  Well, the wedding day is all about the bride and I didn’t own a camera back in my poor just-out-of-college days.  I actually still have this outfit hanging in my closet.  My best friend was living back east at the time and I was here out west, so we had to guess at the sizing and she had it shipped to me.  One of the other bridesmaids went shopping with her and chose the outfits from an upscale department store, the kind of which they only have back east.  It makes me sad to this day that I couldn’t be there to do all those special wedding planning things with her.  As the maid-of-honor, I had a champagne colored outfit and the other girls wore the same outfit, but in black.  This was back before it was “in” to wear black at weddings, but that’s my best friend for you – always cool when it came to fashion.  She wanted us all to be able to wear these again and this is the one time where I think that might have been possible.  It’s too bad I don’t have a better photo, because these were really pretty.  It was a 2-piece pantsuit with the top being an asian-inspired tunic with a mandarin collar, deep slits at the sides (where the wide-legged pants would show through) and frog closures, all done in a satin material with a jacquard sort of floral pattern on part of the tunic.  I can’t say that I’ve ever worn it again, but it reminds me of a special day and a special person and I think it will always remain there in my closet so I can look at it now and then and relive a happy memory.