Knitted Dreams, a little lovely lace, and lessons learned

Last night was a night of fitful, broken sleep, thanks in part to going to bed way too late (I was knitting till about 1:00) and in part to Tiny Dancer waking up 3 ½ hours later with a cough and runny nose. I took TD to bed with us to see if he would go back to sleep (he did not, well at least not till I put him back in his own bed 45 minutes later); Little Buddha woke in the process and started crying because he wanted to get up too. He said he wanted to go swimming.

At any rate, my short night was full of knitting dreams.

1 – I ran into the Yarn Harlot in line somewhere. It was very cool. I liked her a lot - she was exceptionally warm and friendly. I don’t remember anything else, except that she was wearing a yellow shirt.

2 – I got a lot of knitting done on the back of my cardigan. Then I realized I forgot to put in reverse stockinette stitch “seams” and was going to have to frog the whole thing. I was really upset about it. In real life, all I have knit is two swatches. Am not sure why I'm having anxiety dreams about it.

3 – I finished two lace projects this week.

OH WAIT! That last one wasn’t a dream. I really did finish two projects. Wheeeee! Finished Cozy on Monday, blocked it on Thursday, and am absolutely thrilled with it. Pics to come tomorrow, as a part of my final Amazing Lace challenge.

Then today I finished my Simply Lovely Lace Socks. They are so yummy! I love them.


So this is a first for me. Two things I’ve made that I’m not unhappy with. Two things I’ve made for myself that I’ll actually wear.

Other firsts involved in the SLLS: first size 0 needles (also first fingering weight project), first picot trim, first socks for myself, first project knit from a magazine (IK Spring 2006). Also, the first project that has ever required pulling over into the emergency lane on a highway. On Wednesday, as we were driving home north on I-75, one of my needles slid out. I suddenly had 15 tiny live stitches threatening to undo all my work. I freaked out. Didn’t have a crochet hook that tiny. Tried to painstakingly get them all back on a needle, but the motion of the car was making it difficult. Things were coming undone – including me. My Old Man offered to pull over, and promptly did. He deserves some sort of knitterly spouse award for that, doesn’t he?

Finally, a few lessons learned on my vacation:

1 – Even after having lived for 29 ½ years in the south (except for the first 3 weeks of my life in Kansas, a summer in Bolivia [where it was actually winter], and a summer in Washington state), I will never ever get used to hot, humid weather.

2 – Allowing children to watch enormous quantities of television makes them far easier to "manage" than usual.

3 – Going back to life as usual once home (i.e., no TV) will make those same children far more difficult to manage than before.

4 – After a year-and-a-half without television, I will still have seen roughly 90% of all the Law and Order episodes I try to watch on vacation.

5 – The one new SVU episode I see on vacation will be repeated one week later.

6 – I will quickly and happily fall back into a Daily Show addiction when given the opportunity, as well as developing a new addiction to the Colbert Report.

7 – I will also watch mass quantities of perfectly wretched programming, for no good reason.

8 – It is possible to allow one’s spouse to drive all but 200 miles of a 2000+ mile trip without feeling guilty, if knitting is involved.

9 – I can easily take over 200 pictures on vacation and not get a single one of my family (i.e., the four of us). I will, however, manage to take 3 shots of a knitting shop.

10 - If I pack a whole suitcase full of yarn for a 2 ½ week trip, chances are I won’t open it a single time until the very last night. And that will be just to get the second ball of yarn for a project I’m already working on.