Life

Wow, I didn’t realize it had been so long since I updated this. I guess it’s part not having anything interesting to report and part having been restricted in comp time. This past week has not been the best. It has been the week from, well, not hell, but maybe the week from limbo? The first ring of hell as opposed to the inner circles? The week from the place where dropped stitches go when they just disappear on you? Anyway, not good, but not that bad either.

Beginning chronologically means that it starts out pretty well. I had a work colleague over for dinner on Sat. so I spent Friday and Sat. cleaning, or trying to. Try keeping the house clean with 2 Great Danes in it. I swear those dogs carry bags of dirt around with them so they can let them drop (or leak out slowly) at will, like wilfully after I’ve already vacuumed, twice. Sat. she came over and we started in on the knitting. She used to knit, but no longer does. The reason scares me. She says she’s too tired after work to knit anymore. She’s only 10 years older than I am, but then, I’m going to stay this age forever, right? No worries then. So, we got to discussing it and she started looking at all of my knitting paraphernalia and was in awe. She is of the old school where many of these things did not exist. She, for example, did not know what a stitch marker was, not even the plastic ones. She also didn’t know that cable needles or interchangeable circulars existed and my chart holder (which I love and adore and want to take to bed with me at night) was a complete surprise to her. Low tech knitting. Who could imagine it once existed? :0) Anyway, my knitting, especially the stole was properly admired and commented on as only a knitter, albeit low tech knitter, could and even the rest of the conversation (and the raclette) was good. Surprise, surprise, surprise, there is conversation outside of knitting!

Things went downhill on Sun. Long story short, the car battery died and I got stuck. The AAA guy came, jump started me and told me not to stop. He was right. Despite all of my efforts with the battery charger, it still wouldn’t start the next day, so I had to take the morning off of work to get a new battery (show up later than 8:30 am and they take half a day, so if they’re taking, so am I). The “morning” turned into the whole day because this is Switzerland and they actually had to order the battery and couldn’t replace it until 3:30pm. They don’t keep them on stock. *sigh*. Fortunately it’s Feb and I sell ACs. This means I didn’t miss much at work.

The good news was that since I couldn’t go anywhere in the meantime, I could get a lot of knitting done. The bad news is that I nearly lost it with the stole and it almost wound up in pieces. Lots of pieces. Susan once said that the Knitting Gods were trying to lure me into knitting lace. Susan, if this is true, they need to take a new tack. Honestly they do because the one they’re on just isn’t going to work. Three hours. Count them. Three. I spent three hours knitting exactly 4 rows of lace. And these rows aren’t 5000 stitches wide either, so don’t go there. It should not take 3 hours to knit 500 stitches. But it did. The Knitting Gods hid not only one, but two mistakes in there just so they could laugh at me trying to figure out where they were and how to fix them. If I hadn’t stood in line twice for stubbornness, I would have given up knitting lace forever on Mon. But I did stand in line twice (or maybe even thrice) and I persevered and now not only is the stole still in one piece (barely), but I have almost 5 whole star repeats done.

Now, someone please tell me that it will look good when blocked. I need to hear that because it just looks wonky and wrinkled now and the sides all curl. It must improve upon blocking or I will give up lace. Forever. Do you hear that Knitting Gods? Give. Up. Lace. That is not a threat, it’s a promise! Are you listening? Somehow I doubt they are. They’re too busy laughing at some other poor sod who’s still trying to figure out where they made a mistake.

Let me just pause to say that I really do admire Lace Knitters. You posses a nearly divine patience and drive that I was not gifted with. That goes for the Fair Islers / colour knitters too.

Got battery replaced, car ran again, life was good. All the way until Tues morning when my back decided that it didn’t want me to open the barn door to let the dogs out and seized up. Several loads of pain killers and two days later I can walk again. The good news is that it really was just muscular and only needed a bit of time to relax. It has for the most part and life goes on. The lace knitting, however, has gotten better since. I guess the Knitting Gods already had enough to laugh at :P

Topping it off, I’ve got my usual tonsil problems (tonsils need to come out) and have been running a low grade fever for the last month. I suddenly realized that this is not a good thing since I have to have another operation in just under two weeks (the one that gives me one whole week of free, uninterrupted knitting time. Yay for overly careful Siwss doctors! (whom the dogs hate because they have to be kennelled for that week)) and they won’t do it if I’ve got a low grade fever. This sent me off to the docs again and despite the negative CRP results, I’m on anti-biotics in a desperate bid to get rid of that temp long enough to have the op. I hope it works.

This weekend will be filled with much knitting and sleeping and not much else. I’m quite looking forward to it.