Buns of Steel

I know this is a knitting blog but due to circumstances beyond my control, my arms feel like mush and I can't knit!!! Well that isn't exactly true, I have been knitting on the sideways sock, that seems to keep shrinking? I have a sweater that I want to finish so I can wear it sometime in the Fall. Not working on that yet and now we have a rash of new babies, hhhhmmm nine months ago brings us to....yep winter!!!
So I think I may be done with the remodeling at my sons...hahahahah isn't that a joke? I spent Monday over there putting in a new ceramic floor and giving him the how to's of doing the wall. Now when you look at the photos, you, if you are my age, which is in my 40th year of menopause, will notice a vague resemblance to bathrooms of yore!!!! Subway tile and black and white on the floor, I think my first apartment had that? It is hot and sheik and the new Vogue, or is it Dwell. So I waddled home with sore knees and a butt that can pick up a quarter, that is after I can feel it again. I am retired!!!!! I am quite proud of how I can pass along my knowledge to Mike who is finally realizing why you need these skills. He is smart and does IS tech work for a great company. He is techno smart and he keeps me up on the latest and greatest and keeps me moving in a fast cyber world. I thank him for that, because you just relax one minute and you are behind technology. Me on the other hand, has timeless skills of remodeling and working with my hands, it is a great pairing, and he is a good teacher and I try to be, I think I am though because the photo shows you his first wall tiling and floor tiling job. He also has a wonderful fiance that takes on any task given her and is truley hard worker, that worked right along side of us. She had a page from a magazine that "We" were using as a guide for the remodel job!!! I think "we" succeeded. So she took to painting and he finished the wall and I waddled home and took a hot bath. I had intentions of stocking shelves today but I am looking at the steps with trepidation. Can you tear a muscle deep in your arse cheeks? Can you say "Out of shape?"
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What's in your pocket?

"Tools"
Besides being a Yarn shop owner and Fiber Artist, for years to pay for my addiction, I have been a Steamfitter. For 30 years to be exact. Some of you may say, what is a Steamfitter, I could say that when I started my apprenticeship, I thought I would be ironing, but I would be lying. I installed heating, airconditioning equipment and piping...mostly piping. I was a certified high pressure welder, heliarc and all the other crap that goes along with it. I loved my job, it suited my personality and I loved working with my hands. Besides I got to work with men all day!!! Due to health reasons and probably from inhaling all the bad stuff that goes along with welding and chemicals etc. I decided I needed to make a change in my life. So I bought a shop and made it into a yarn and fiber shop. I am living my dream. Ok you wonder where is this going??? When I moved here, I made sure the piping was something I wasn't going to have to deal with, and it looked good. Other than changing all the darn faucets, I have not had to repair anything...yet. My son and his fiance, bought a house.....see where this is going? It is a beautiful home, but the bathroom needed updating....getting a better picture? But in my favor, her father is a plumber, which in my trade there are three things plumbers know...(poop runs downhill, payday is Friday and they put there faces where we put our arses) no animousity there? It is just a fun banter between the two trades. So Saturday, I had to put my tools into a purple tote and load up the car and do some plumbing....it was for a good cause. Let me tell you I have not worked this hard for a year!!! Hear me a YEAR, her father is a slave driver, hey I'm Union I kept telling him!!! No breaks not even to go bathroom ( there is no bathroom it is gutted) I spent all day a foot off of the ground on a ladder soldering joints and cutting and in order to keep my pride and show the" task master" that I could keep up, I didn't whine, one bit....till now!!!! I'm sure he doesn't read this, so I think I am safe!!! I have whip marks on my back, well it feels like it anyway!!! I also feel like I have been doing buns of steel exercises for a week, not to mention my bat wings are aching. My feet hurt and I drove a floor nail into my head. I didn't know all of this was happening until this morning, when I tried to get out of bed and one leg moved and the other screamed ,"no way" !!! My back feels Ok but what the heck was I doing with my arse??? Other than pinching my cheeks so tight when I almost fell off the step stool. Well it's done, we replaced all and I must say all the piping in the house and it looks good. Now I find out if I'm a Steamfitter or Sprinkler fitter!!!! I can't wait to open my shop today, if I can do the steps!!!

Does not compute....please press one

This is an update, my shop phone is out of order!!! Since Tuesday and probably till Friday. It is due to the immense amount of rain we are getting. I was really upset, but you know, it is a small price to pay considering people are loosing their homes to floods not far from here. My basement is still dry and most of my business is not done over the phone. So if you call and get a Fax machine screech...it's still not working!!!! So just stop in instead!!!
Ok that is today but Tuesday went something like this...
Oh my Gawd the phone isn't working....dialing AT&T...buzzz...If you are calling about your bill press one, Diablo Espanol dos..If you are calling for repairs blah blah blah, so I press 2...due to heavy calls we will answer your call as soon as one of our representives is not busy with 4,000 other customers. So I wait, dial tone, and another animated voice comes on and tells me how important I am to them and to still wait or go to the website...hhhmmm I hang up and go online...I follow all the prompts including some garbage about going outside and fixing my own damn phone....uh excuse me I am not even done paying for the installment of the phone so why should I fix it? They didn't have a spot for that but did have a spot that said I agree to pay for a technician to fix the phone....I sign off and go back to the phone...search my drawer for tranquilizers or some sort of mood altering drugs because they aren't going to like my mood at the moment. So this went on and on till I got smart and called new products and got a real voice and she kindly explained that they are having alot of problems it's not just me...Ok I feel better now is it the answer or the bottle of Jim Beam!!!!

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Be sure to check out the crazies knitting!!! Hey don't forget that Miniature Knolfing is happening this Wed. Hope you can make it!!! This is quick, it is quiet because Milwaukee is void of knitters today!!! Chicago on the other hand is full!! TNNA!!! If you went hope you enjoyed it and if you didn't , we have that in common!!! Not much news, I am tying a bunch of loose ends together and doing....the all dreaded.........bookwork!!! Oh and by the way I am now going to carry...gulp....Mission Hills cotton!!! I think....unless someone can talk me out of it....???? That's what I thought!!!

I'm doomed!!

This is a photo of my knitting challenge!!! After casting on 6 times...yes six times, I am toast, stick a fork in me I am done!! Oh not done knitting, I am done trying to make a pattern that doesn't work....work!!! First I started with the chart, that was screwed up, so I moved to the printed version.....guess what it is virtually impossible to do with 31 stitches what they wanted. Maybe lace isn't my thing.....maybe I should shelf the whole project....oh and to add insult to injury...I lost my first ball of brown lace malabrigo cake, so after I balled a new skein of "Sealing wax" Malabrigo....I found the first ball....of course. I think I am being told "Put down the lace crap!!!! But it's my challenge!!! So I am a few rows away from a straight jacket, but one thing I am is persistant!!!! Tomorrow I will relax while switting in a pool. We plan on knitting in a swimming pool!!!! I need a break, I wonder if a Margarita is on the menu?

Is it OK to swear????

Friday, fun Friday, I have hives....so if you happen to walk into the shop, and I am laying on the table with a puddle of drool coming from my mouth, please either check yourself out or try to wake me, I am on Benadryl. I can't stop scratching so for the last resort I have resorted to Benadryl, it knocks me out for 12 hours. Which brings me to, never do lace knitting on Benadryl. I hate this mystery shawl, and today Fun Friday, which by the way you can substitute any swear word for Fun, this lace is/has put me over the edge, especially after dropping a slipped stitch and then proceeded to pull it to see where it went and now it is all kaboobled and I am toast!!! Another by the way, I am typing on Benadryl so bear with me, my fingers are bouncing all over the keys and my vision is blurred and I am half asleep I think I almost drooled sitting upright????? I am a mess, I look like Goldie Hawn in Overboard, well not half as cute but miserable, with Calamine Lotion all over!!! So I have mystery hives, a fun mystery shawl and when I wake up from this stupor a mystery couple of days!!!! I am feeling a sense of relief...I am shelving the fun shawl. I have made a concious decision or is it an unconcious decision to stop torturing myself, stop the insanity!!! Take more drugs and just quit, it is OK to quit...isn't it??? I won't wear the stupid thing!!! Oh yeah I will in my casket, so it is probably a foot long I made it to row 100 that was my quitting goal and I did it!!! Actually I accomplished two things, my goal row and quitting!!! Ok, I think the hives came from using some Fun spa treatment to exfoliate, now I know I am allergic to tons of perfumy crap and I know I have sensative skin, and that I am latex intolerant, but wait, maybe it changed??? maybe I totally was oblivious to the fact that mineral oil is petroleum based and this Fun spa stuff was 80% mineral oil and I proceeded to slather my arms and chest and fun leg with the crap in hopes of coming out of the tub having skin like Haley Berry, tone and all!!!! I used my favorite natural sponge to really help infuse the Fun spa crap, so that was Monday and the rash on my chest developed before I could blink, and I thought oh oh rewashed it and got it under control and it seemed to be subsiding until I took another Oatmeal bath and grabbed my favorite spongy and rerashed myself, this time it is here with a vengance, the sponge is soaking in detergent one step away from the trash. One wiff of that Spa treatment and it is going in the garbage!!! So here I sit pretty in pukey Pepto Bismol Pink Calamine and Benadryl and drooling with half closed eyes. My mystery shawl in a heap on the table....... Welcome to Fun Friday oh and Kirby Dean emailed me and let me know she is Lonely and if I wanted to look at her pics I could email her at this address, because she is at another computer, not the one she sent the email from......I'm surprise she isn't selling fun Viagra!!! ..why me????