January Crud

I got it, the crud, the crawl under your skin into your bones hurt.  The sneezy runny, snot machine nose and the small annoying cough.  That was last week Saturday and I am still coming around.  All that helped was, rest, Advil cold and sinus, Mucinex DM, and the green serum, the wonderful green crappy tasting serum they call Nyquil.  So no posts for the last week, because my brain was mushy and i couldn't concentrate on anything.  I did not knit, spin nothing but rest, read a little, ate, ate and ate some more.  I cleaned out the fridge, of anything I could make warm.  I was drinking warmed up water, and that helped hydrate me.  So today I had a list of things I had to do....go to the dump, go to the bank, get groceries and clean the kitchen.  I did all of that and then had to rest...I was pooped.  I have heard this crud keeps coming back and going around and just kill me now.  I am feeling so much better and I am excited for the snow we are supposed to get.  I have soup fixings and cooking to do and some good movies to watch, so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

Go Packers and a ban on knitting

This is going to be short, but sweet.  If you are watching the game today do not knit while viewing it.  I am warning you that your knitting will show each stress you are incurring.  I was knitting at the last game and holy cow, I had to rip it out it was so tight.  So if you are watching the game, put food in your lap instead of knitting, yes I said food, nibble away.  Trust me you don't want to knit!!!  My mom asked me where I was going to watch the game.  I told her no one wants a germ bag.  I was supposed to have the party here but I am too sick to want anything but soup!!!  It will be worth it if the Packers come home with a Bear head trophy!!!!  Remember eat popcorn no knitting.  You will thank me later.

Hazard Warning

Alert, cleaning house is bad for your health.  I have Asthma and dust is a trigger, so is vacuuming and mopping and household cleaner smells and doing the wash and and.  Seriously though last time I scrubbed the stairway, the next day I thought I was having a heart attack, it was actually shoveling that gave me the pseudo heart attack.  That is just one more thing I can add to my list, but you know what makes me feel so good and it's like a miracle fix....spinning, knitting, playing.  I just pick up the needles or start to treadle and voila, I feel better.  So my thinking on that is "if it feels good, do it!" Isn't that the theme of the 70's?  I started a new scarf called Spitcurl, it is a fun knit, you cast on 200 stitches so it is a long hike along the needles but, if you look at the fact that you are building it the long way, you don't have to go too wide?  So it does grow fast.  It's also an easy knit for those Knit nights with a group, just plain garter stitch.  The Pattern is from Staceyjoy Elkin (Patternfish) and uses two colors of yarn, I am using Happy Hands,  Spirit in the Sky and Plum and it is yummy.  I will send a photo when it looks like something.  Well it doesn't look like anything but the colors are soooooo beautiful I have to share anyway.

Isn't that pretty and ohhhh so easy and relaxing.  It sure beats cleaning house, cooking, washing, whatever else brings on an Asthma attack.....insert a little chuckle here.

Determination

On our cool morning walk today, Iggy is looking for the perfect spot to do his duty. We have a thick blanket of snow so navigating the proper position and getting into a snow bank can be very frustrating. Although to do his little potty he maneuvered up a steep hill of snow, only to be up to his back in snow, just to get under a little evergreen tree to pee. So we keep walking, now we are standing next to a short wall of railroad ties and he stands up next to it as if he wants to go up there? No that is not what he is after, seriously there is a white tissue about 2 feet from the edge of the wall. A stinking white Kleenex, that he is jumping up and trying to get atop this wall to eat the treat? I mean he is persistent, his little legs are bobbing up and down, as if it is a meaty bone. I begin to shake my head and pull him in order to distract him. What is so funny is, the white tissue was hard to see in the first place because it is resting on top of white snow. The other thing it could be, is that he just wanted a distraction from his regular sniffing of every pee spot including his own for a four block area. hhhmmm "dog e mail" So after dragging him away from that stupid little tissue he was once again on track for the perfect place to do his job, right on the sidewalk...sigh.

Slush Baby

Today I ran errands I didn't get done yesterday. I thought as long as I am out I will stop and see what kind of soup is cooking at Soup Market. I pull up in front of the shop, get my quarter for the meter and try to find a spot to get up on the curb. There is a slush moat for three feet in front of the curb, in front of the car, in back of the car, in back of the next car and actually the whole street. So the option is I can jump and land with one leg in front of me and doing the James Brown split in front of the store window, or chose an alternative route. I chose an alternative and walk to the end of the block and find a storm sewer which I also know is glazed with ice like a donut. As I start gingerly walking across it I make it safely to the sidewalk. I get my soup and begin my trek back the same way, only thing is, as I am walking tightly along side the cars in the street a nice big old city bus goes by, spewing a fin of slush about, let's say mid thigh high and naturally gets me with this yucky brown, cold wet slop. I didn't see it coming but I saw them going, because I stood there frozen like my legs were, and in shock I think it was instant hyperthermia. I don't really know what to do, do I scrape the wet junk off of my pants or jump wet into a warm car and let it melt into the seats? I am needless to say not thinking this is too funny, I'm sure not as funny as the bus driver may have, if in fact they even knew what they did. So with a frozen rootbeer colored pant leg, I take my bare hand and whip off the chucks and then use a blanket for Iggy to soak up the rest. I didn't want to stand out there too long looking like a darn target for the next bus. Boy the heat sure felt good and better yet a bath when I got home. I even took a little nap in the tub!!! So beware the slop is upon us!!!

Art Institute of Chicago on a budget

January is the month to go to the Art Museum in Chicago, it is free. Normally it is about $18.00, so that is quite a deal. They are also exhibiting a Fiber Art event. There are tapestries and weavings that are drop dead gorgeous. It is mind boggling how intricate some of these works are. I did look ahead of time to see if you could photograph, the answer on line was yes, the answer at the door was no? Although there were several people photographing the minute I aimed my camera, I got reminded, so I put it away. There was one work that looked like a Jellyfish with hundreds of tendrils hanging down and it just looked so peaceful and like a huge cat toy!! We took the Amtrack down and that is such a nice ride, and quick with no traffic. My face is wind burned from the early morning snowy walk to the Museum, it was a tad brisk, but we broke it up with breakfast and more coffee. Then we took a cab over to Loopy Yarn on 47 W. Polk, where I deposited a fair amount of dollars. If you are in the Chicago area it is a very nice yarn shop and Vicki is really sweet!! So our day went well and was fun! I love Chicago, other than Sunday, I will not be rooting for the Bears.
Amtrack trip $44.00 round trip
Breakfast for two with free coffee $7.00 (I know what a deal)
Museum Admission Free
Coat Check $1.00
Wasted money on Audio tour $7.00 (nothing in the Fiber exhibit had an audio)
Cab to Loopy Yarn $7.00 for two
Lunch at Pot Bellies for one, $7.00
Cab to Union Station $7.00 for two
Parking at the Amtrack station $5.00
I think the day was pretty reasonable for Chicago and Oh 10% sales tax...whew

Cherry tea and me

Last night I met with a group of knitters for a casual dinner party and the hostess offered a variety of refreshments. I chose Cherry Green tea? I am not a tea fan,I prefer coffee but this tea tasted like those neatly wrapped foil Violet flavored candies at the check out. It was so good, I think I drained the pot, and I drank it well beyond a respectable time of night to be drinking caffeine. Well at my age anytime after 4 is a respectable time I suppose. I went to sleep just fine and at 2:48 boing, I was awake, wide awake. I slipped on my shoes and dragged my feet to the bathroom and released about four cups of the wonderfully flavored tea, and drudged back to bed. Crawling under the covers and finding that warm soft spot in the bed, I was not going to go back to sleep. I slipped my arm under the pillow next to me and found my Ipad, or fondly referred to as Paul, turned it on so the bright light lit up my face and made me fully aware that I was not returning to sleep. A game of Mai Jong, Crossword puzzle, that I had no clue what the clues were, not even the faintest idea, paged through Face book, Twitter and Ok Ok I'm am not going to try to force this issue. I get up and dressed and "who walks their dog at 4:30 am, unless of course you are not retired?? Now I really do love this time of day/night? It is quiet and there is a white blanket of freshly fallen snow, the plow went through and that may have woke me too? Up the hill we go Iggy pulling feverishly at the end of the leash, in a hurry to do his duty and me eyes half open, so badly wanting to be back in my bed, that warm spot with the covers pulled up around my neck, nestled into the dent in my pillow. This whole week has been hard for me to sleep, in retrospect this whole week I have been either eating late or drinking caffeine late. Oh Chai tea? full of caffeine. This week, I am making a point of not drinking or eating after...6:31pm only water. I may even add a little melatonin to my already growing supplement program. I want a nap and now it's 7am.....My heart goes out to people with insomnia, I love sleeping, I could make a habit of it, as a matter of fact I could easily slip into the part of a Koala bear, sleep 23 hours and eat 2 hours and do it all over again....

How can something so cute!!!

Stink so bad...seriously? There is nothing as stinky as a teenage boy, but this dog takes the cake! I sleep with a Cpap machine, my nose is covered and the air is filtered, last night I woke to something familiarly stinky and snoring away is the dirty white boy! It didn't wake him up but, it woke me up, whew. This brings a renewed awareness that if there were smoke it would probably wake me up too. I certainly didn't need the little gas bag to prove that to me though. He also has a knack for laying under the shop table when all the woman are around knitting, and soon you see the look of disgust on one knitters face and then it waifs to the next and then the whole table is gagging!!! It amazes me, but that is why he is so cute, so we don't get mad at him!!! My own personal gas bag!!! P U.....

Good Teachers

There is nothing so good as a someone that can share knowledge with others and do it well!!! I have been stuck on ripping this burgandy wine colored beautiful cashmere sweater. The color is rich and dark and so are the stitches. I am unable to see it very well and then I talked to a friend. He explained to me which way to start and which way to rip and I learned more from him in a 10 minute conversation than I could have read in hours. If you are thinking of redoing sweaters I highly recommend John Loeffelholz's class on Reconstructing sweaters!!! He is a genius and makes it so easy that when you find that magical thread that zips the whole sleeve off a sweater in one little pull, you will be as thankful as I am. Oh and a good set of magnifiers helps too, I couldn't see the stitches let alone describe them but now I am in ripping heaven!!!! Rippppp

What's it gonna take?

I have things I need to get done. I have a busy two months and seem to be in an energy slump. I have some spinning that I have to do. I have a Sketchbook challenge that I am stumped on, instead of just plowing through it, I am not getting inspired. The challenge is "highly prized" this is a tough one. Of course my family is first and foremost, but I want to go beyond that, so I drew a picture of my camera, because IT can capture all the highly prized things in my life. So a drawing of a camera, just sitting there is not complete, I need to do something else, color or something, maybe a splash of water color in the backround???? Then there is another fiber challenge called "Change" I have the idea in my head and now I am going to get to work on it. I am planning on dying the silk today to do the project, if I can get off of my arse and do it. It will take me 20 min. at most to do this and I am dawdling my time away. I also need to felt some clogs...am I doing it? Normally it takes a new venture to get me going and I have new ventures what is the hold up??? Wednesday I am taking my camera to knitting to start my photo project called "How we knit"! Speaking of knitting, I am bored with everything I am doing right now.....so I need to do something else, like finish my weaving, or at least work on it. In the shop, I will soon be doing inventory...let me say one thing...ugh, it won't take long to do but it is another one of those, has to be done, don't want to do it. I want to watch movies and take a nap. What is it going to take to get motivated??

Crocheting my Way!!!

In the shop today, I was asked what stitch I used when I crocheted a shawl many years ago?  Uhhhh  it was a double crochet?
Well when I did the double crochet at home it didn't look like yours?
I don't crochet like anyone else.
How do you do it?  I really like the way it looks.
Thanks I dunno, here I'll show you (taking a crochet hook and whipping the yarn around and catching it through the loop and pulling it through?
(giggling) Do that again.
k
Uhh what stitch is that?
Mine
So I think it is or should be called the embedded double crochet
Why
Because there is no stitch like that but I like the way it looks and I want to knit a shawl using that stitch.
Careful you will reteach yourself and forget how to do it correctly, but then again who says mine is wrong, it works...for me?  Show me how you do it.
like this
hhhmmm I can do that, but crochet hurts my hands
So today I learned to crochet right and showed someone else how to crochet wrong?

Knitting toys

Isn't it fun when you get some new shiny or not gadget.  I love my gadgets!  Some were, or are, better than others.  Some have found their way to the darkest corners of my studio, but then you hit on something really good and you wonder how you lived without it.  Companies are always putting out new and improved yarn gadgets and I'm on it.  Who doesn't love putting all of your projects into the bags and filling the pockets with little trinkets or treasures.  The Oh so sweet little stitch markers you got from a friend, and they came in a little round tin with a see thru lid. (I love little boxes with lids)  Sometimes they are pretty useless because they catch on everything in sight, but they are so cute.  I got a new toy for Christmas and am going to fill it up today because it will hold this huge project with 20 balls of yarn.  So I will be absent for a while playing with a new toy!!!  What new toy did you get??? or love??  I lost the photo????

Avoiding the gripper

I watch Law and Order and just love it and it always amazes me that they even ask someone, what were you doing on December 27th at 3:00?  I would have no idea, and here's proof.  Since Friday, I have had a weird tight feeling in my chest...almost to the point of saying to my friends on New Years Eve, " I think we need to take a ride to the ER".  It is still a tight feeling, not a pain but you know heart attacks in women are not the same in men.  I fear the "gripper" my dad used to get that, he had angina for as long as I can remember and we were taught that if dad is laying down and doesn't respond or if he is gripping his chest, he has a little bottle of pills in his pocket a brown bottle with a screw on cap that has little bitty pills in it hiding under the white cotton ball, and we needed to place one pill under his tongue.  Thankfully we never had to do this but it had come close.  Needless to say heart trouble is prevalent in my family and is in the back of my mind.  I have an enlarged heart and have had for a very long time, but this tightness wasn't going away?  I decided last night if indeed it was not gone by the morning I would go to the ER.  So this morning up at 4am, took a bath in preparation for admittance and a heart cath, I even defurred.  Took Iggy to daycare and told them my friend may be picking him up, paid my bills and went to the ER.  I was the only one there and they were very attentive.  IV, EKG, Blood drawn and Xray, then they gave me this awful drink, just in case it was indigestion, it numbed my mouth and throat.  Everything came up negative,  so I am good to go, but he asked if I did something this last week that could have caused chest muscle discomfort?  HHHmmmm let me see?  uuuhhhmmmmmm this made me think if I would be a suspect in a murder, and they asked me what I was doing on so and so day.....I can't remember last week?  But I am still thinking about it, I did scrub the floor??  Dust...Vacuum, which once again leads me to believe housekeeping is BAD for your health.  So until I go to do the same thing again, I won't remember until that Ahhhha moment!!!  Now I am going to spin, some cashmere.

Displaced outrage

Today on the news they are cutting more city bus routes?  I don't understand why no one is upset about this but losing the High speed Lite rail was such a tragedy.  We didn't get the money or the hassle of upkeep on a rail line that no one, that is supposed to be able to use, it can or could afford.  The people for it are arguing that the rail will bring inner city people to the burbs for jobs.. ?  at what cost?  Apparently we can't afford to keep inner city bus lines running?   These are the lines that get people to jobs.  We lost  a bus line right out here in Oak Creek the southern most burb of Milwaukee County and there are at least three Senior living centers here, and lets face it the lowest paid hardest jobs go to the inner city or lower income people and where do they live?  They have to walk about 5 blocks to get to the bus, this is what is wrong.  People that work in Brookfield need bus lines to go there, or Waukesha, not to Madison, if they work in Madison and don't have a car they LIVE in Madison.  The high speed rail is for the people with money.  How often I wanted to take the Amtrak to Chicago but if you have two people it is cheaper to drive.  It cost $50 round trip, you don't hear of the inner city workers taking the Amtrak and that is, as high speed, as any rail that makes stops along the way will be.  My support goes to accomodating the workers and people that need bus lines IN THE city!!!  What would be better yet is to get high enough paying jobs that low income people could afford rent where they work.  If you work in Brookfield, Mequon, you should be able to afford to live where you work.  I am all for progress but if we look at the big picture and avoid the small picture we are really missing out.  We need to get some sort of affordable transportation for everyone!!  I give kudos to those that wait everyday at bus stops in the bitter cold or horrible heat to get to any job!  I did it when I was in high school and after I graduated, and when I turn the key in my ignition, or pass people standing at the bus stop with little kids or bundled up, it always reminds me just how lucky I am.

Good Friends

There is a saying that Good friends are better than gold, and who says you can have just one?  or is that potato chips?  In my life growing up, I had one very good friend, I saved her life when we were small kids.  I was at the public pool and I of course couldn't swim, I had to stand on the shallow side of the ropes, if I went on the other side it was on tippy toes and very risky if the pool was busy.  So I was standing neck deep in water and I could see this girl struggling to keep her face above water, but she was on the other side of the ropes.  Her braids floated past me, she had very long hair and I grabbed them and reeled her in.  We became best friends forever, even before the term BFF.  Turns out she just moved in down the block from my house, and that sealed the deal.  There was nothing that kept us apart and nothing we didn't share.She saved my life many years later, after my first divorce I was a shell of a person, I had no self esteem, no identity and she swooped into my life and rescued me, I too owe her my life.  I got married, she got married, she moved a little further and we kind of went separate ways as lives do, but there is one thing I know for sure, if I called her today and said "I need you"  she would be there and I for her.   Well we still keep in contact at Holidays and so on and I thought I would never find a friend so dear as her, but I was wrong.  I have found more, I have friends that I can call on, depend on, ask for help or just to listen.  It has taken me a really long time to let someone in that close.  It may have been because I worked with men all the time that I wasn't exposed to very many women.  I have good men friends but not that I could call on and meet for lunch, they are all married and there are certain boundaries of respect, and I respect that.  Sometimes I just don't know how I got so lucky to have so many good friends.

Another year is passing

I don't know if it is part of being grown up but it's like the WE energies bill, it seems like I just paid it and it's in the mail again.  I never dreaded tax season till now and having a business, because like all other business's we have to pay taxes and personal taxes and all of this collecting of information starts January 1st.  Doesn't it seem like we just celebrated New Years?  Remember Y2K, when bunches of people bought generators in "case"?  In case of what, some people bought plywood to board of up their windows, my thinking was if I got hungry I would find the boarded up houses or some Mormon, they have to have food!!!  Well anyway with the New Year breathing down our necks, I am thinking what I would like to achieve in the New Year.  I don't make resolutions, I never follow through and I know it so why bother.  I do like to think and I use that term loosely, think about what I would like to achieve in 2011.  I am excited about Sheep in the City getaway and I am teaching at UWM in Spring.  I am not planning on going to Yarn School this Spring, just can't afford it, but I may go to Washington Island for some spinning sanity.  Anything further out than 5 or 6 months is pretty much a long time away for me.  I may rent the Civic Center and hold an Art yarn spinning class for two days?  I am loving recycling sweaters and saving the landfills from good wool and natural fibers.  I am joining a sketchbook challenge which last one year.  I want to write more and take more photos.  More street photography, that is a real challenge, but capturing people being themselves is my quest and the "How we knit"  this is where I am going to different knitting groups and photographing how knitters hold their needles.  It is of great interest to me, because we all hold them differently.  I may do a pod cast?  Well anyway I have to pay the Utility bill again.  Rest a little before another party weekend!!!

Hey who put that statue so close to the road?

Things seemingly are easing up as far as mom and her new transition, well her's and ours.  This morning I took Iggy to daycare and wanted to see if Target was open before 7am, guess not.  I drove a different way home, the way I normally take all the time, as I crested the hill, a familiar Christmas Carol was on and I was singing and thinking about the words, Little Drummer boy.  I used to dislike that carol for some reason but I am finding it very sweet as I get older.  I think it goes back to Holiday Concerts and the droning Rumpapumpum....we all had to sing, well at least I had to because I think I may be a tad tone deaf.  To keep with the theme of being annoying I would Rumpapumpum, either loud or off key.  I think I may have been jealous that I didn't sound like Brenda Lee or Janet Lennon?  So I am singing the words not the chorus and look to my right and mentally say "Why would someone put those deer statues so darn close to the road?  The deer at this point was looking in my window saying "Why the hell is the road so close to my toes?"  Seriously this deer was looking at me through my side window, maybe he heard me singing and it was like a dog whistle to them?  I was only going 35mph but when you see something like that it seems like you are going 100mph.   I kind of laughed to myself, the poor deer was dumb founded....as I am sure I was too.  Rumpapumpum...

They ask us why?

People ask us why we stay living in Wisconsin.  People ask how we can stand the cold and snow.  People like me say, Winter is beautiful, drinking chai tea or hot chocolate just doesn't seem right in 90 degree heat. A fireplace burning and wrapping in a wool blanket or hand knit afghan, can't be done like in the summer. It is snowing out right now, it is beautiful.  Knitting and sipping coffee, and wearing flannel jammies, is all part of the beauty.  I love walking in the snow, I don't like the bitter cold, but snow makes my heart and soul feel lighter, it lifts my spirits, or makes my spirit bright.  Why do I live here in the cold?  I love the snow, I love how the branches on the trees get heavy with sparkly white shiny glitter.  How the moon even looks like it is peaking out from a blanket of clouds, just enough to make sure all is calm, all is bright.  I love to hear the snow scrunch under boots or tires.  I love to watch Iggy run and flip snow with his nose and hop like a baby lamb in Spring.  I have to admit I don't like the snow when it gets dirty, and slushy, but everything has it's downside or the upside would never look so good.  So I am going to put on my coat and boots and go walk Iggy in the snow and catch some snowflakes on my tongue, or mostly my glasses.  I will kick the snow with my boots and smile and then come back into house where the fire is burning bright, the lights are sparkling on the Christmas tree, I will sit by the window and let it snow let it snow let it snow!!!

Tis the Season

Oh I hope you have your shopping done and your knitting has all it's ends neatly tucked in, the end is near.  Christmas that is!  I am not sure if I am ready, but I do know I am partied out.  This last week I had my Miller retirement party and it was very nice, nice to see all the people you worked for and it makes you wonder who is left working?  Then the Steamfitters from Miller throw a party at a bar near work and the retirees party on the working fitters.  I laughed so hard at all of the stories, some I heard and some I had not.  It is always so much fun to see those guys. I also need to mention it is so nice that there is no smoking anymore, I could breath.  Last year it was so cold and I didn't want to take my good jacket into the bar for fear I would never get the stink out of it, so I wore my sleeping bag coat and let it hang outside for a few days and nights.  I have been busy making slippers from sweaters!  I am having lots of fun doing this and also found that acrylic does not felt, like I didn't know that?  I thought it was a wool sweater, and normally I get a breathing reaction from acrylic, but I was working with so much fuzz I didn't really notice.  So into the washer it went and filled my washer with fuzz, fuzz and more fuzz and are now residing in the trash.  I also had to burn test one sweater because it looked like a mohair sweater but it wasn't.  I do have to say they are doing a prettty darn good job of making acrylic feel less plasticky.  So these Ugg like slippers are so warm and fun to design and decorate.

Punch everything and everyone

Have you noticed that a lot of commercials on TV are slapping people and hitting.  If you use Thera flu becareful because it will kick you butt.  Halls cough drops will bring in the Boxing trainer and open a can of whoop on you.  Heartburn causes your food to slap you in the face?  I get the idea, but is this the only way we can get a point across is hitting?  Seriously we grew up with the 3 stooges and yes we did emulate them poking eyes and slapping heads and the sound effects of whopppppppppp weeeeeeeee dunk.  I try as I might to avoid commercials but I noticed this and it can't help but make me wonder what it is doing to our kids.