Can't Leave Home without Him!

My husband was adament over the phone Sunday morning. He was not going to stay home to man the fort again. It had been just too stressful!!!! DD and I left Friday around 5 for a 5 hour drive to an East Coast Open weekend horse show in Williamston, NC. DH was to stay home with DS, attend soccer game and chaperone.

Soccer game did not go well. DS has been hiding the extent of pain he has been experiencing from shin splints. He is afraid he will not be played and there are very few games left of his senior year. I think he might actually have some stress fractures but I have agreed to wait this last week before we start the doctor route. Meanwhile, I have been taping family-sized bags of frozen vegetables to his legs after every practice and game. My family does not eat much green and many of those bags go in the trash but they are easier to manage than bags of ice, for one, they do not leak. Anyway, the pain got bad, coach did not understand and told son he was not committed and midst the tears, son took off jersey and left they field. He called me on the phone and was almost incoherent in our conversation. DH provided the emotional support, called around to get all the correct people in a room at 7:30 Monday morning and we now have an understanding.

Three weeks ago our 12 year old cat died. We all missed her. She was an outside kitty and tended to meet you at the door and escort you to and from the vehicle. We all missed her.

On a trip to the vet with the horses to have Coggins pulled, we found two kittens the Vet Tech had rescued from a dumpster. I had not uploaded pictures because DD had not been able to get any real good ones. Her's has a bobbed tail. The other is a long-haired fluffy thing. Can you tell where this fateful tale is headed? DD shooed the kittens out of the driveway, got in the truck and drove down the road. When he stopped to enter the intersection, he saw our kittens running in the road. They had evidently hitched a ride. DH parked the truck and tried to catch the paniced kittens. He was able to save one. Other drivers stopped and helped but Bobby never made it home. DH called me in NC to ask if I thought they should find a replacement then or let daughter find her own.

The remaining cat became very clinging and very affectionate. Sunday morning, he followed some runners in the University fun run down to the fateful intersection. A co-ed manning the intersection scooped him up and went door to door until she found our house. He is now an inside kitty.

Meanwhile, at the horse show I was getting very little sleep but a bit of knitting done. I fetch the water and tack the horses and dress the riders, hold the reins, collect the ribbons, pay the entry fees and feed horses and riders, wipe away the tears and join in the celebrarions. Not very glorious, but I do get to knit. I finished one of the grey socks and got the heel turned and about two inches done on the foot.

We are all exhausted. There are 4 soccer games this week. I guess we will not make it to the barn. I just hope to get more than 5 hours sleep tonight!!

Blisters Everywhere, almost

The walk yesterday was wonderful, at the time. Today I have blisters on bottom of my feet and the tops of my toes. You know, I carry my knitting everywhere with me so that I can use those spare moments. I guess I should carry walking shoes, or even my boots. Suppose that shows where my priorities are!!! I have a callous on the bottom of my left thumb from guiding the needle. Now I have a 'could be' blister on the thumb on my right hand. Does that mean I have been knitting too much or not enough? Hmmmm, I think I will knit some more to see what happens next.

One last try at sharing a picture of the Cascading Leaves sock. I think this one is a little better. I am still in love with the yarn. It is Fleece Artist. The color saturation is lovely, the hand is scrumptious. The twist is springy and I think it may be a teeny bit thicker than the Lornas Laces. I will compare the gauge next time. I knit these socks on a size 2 needle with a guage of 7 stitches per inch.

Someone on one of my mailing lists was asking about Lorna's Laces Liberty colorway. These are a pair of basic socks I knit in the colorway. I used a size 1 needle and a 2X2 rib all the way down to the ankle. The color is distributed nicely without any pooling. It really looks dorky with the ribbed cuff but it is a comfortable sock.

DD and I will be leaving this afternoon to spend the weekend at a horse show in Williamston, NC. DD and DS will stay home as DS has an important soccer game this evening. As I planned out the weekend and made arrangements for each of us, I realized that another chapter is ending. Our son has played soccer on and off since he was 5 years old. He has played varsity soccer for all 4 years. During the summer he played on club and traveling teams. It has consumed his life. Until this year, I never missed a game. Now with DD competing in horse shows, my husband and I have rotated so that both events are covered. Our son has been rather injury prone and we want to make sure we are there. Last year he had a concussion and then in another game took a ball right in the eye and had a Hyphema (sp). His blue eye turned brown from the pool of blood.

He had the thrill of being scouted and was offered a college soccer scholarship. I think that has been his dream for years - the TV cameras at the school taping his college signing. However, he has turned it down. Growing up is so difficult and painful sometimes. He has realized that he is too small to play professionally. Accepting the scholarship would have cost us money at the private school that he decided on. Instead, he has two academic scholarships at a state university that will pay for almost all of his college.

What this long rambling has lead to is the realization that we have one more week of soccer games and then maybe playoffs and then we are done, forever. I know, I know, he can still play club soccer, just not the same level of competition. It will mean more knitting time .

Dear Diary

I feel like I should start, (well actually I did start) this post with a "Dear Diary". So few people are reading, if any, that it is more like my personal diary.

Today was a very productive day, both professionally and knit-wise. I drove six hours in a rented van to a two hour meeting. That could be annoying, however the meeting is important. I have been given the opportunity to serve on a state department of education task force to consider the feasibility of creating a virtual high shcool. The study was positive and we are going forward. This is something that I am very passionate about. It will even out the playing field and provide opportunities for some of our very poor districts. It will mean more work for my current position but new challenges that I look forward to.

On the way home, I stopped to meet DD at the barn. Now when I say barn, I mean barn. This is not a fancy training stable, it is a family barn in the middle of the redneck, Skoll ring, good 'ole boy, South. My old nag seemed agreeable to a ride tonight, but lucky for her I was wearing my office clothes and my Clarks just were appropriate for riding. I had been driving and sitting all day and decided I would stroll the North 40 while knitting on my newest sock. I am using some of the Regia Cotton that I bought recently from Elann.com. I have not knit a sock in all stockinette in a long time and had trouble finding my basic sock pattern. I am using 60 stitches on a size 2. The needle size seems a little big but the jacquard seems to be working on that size needle. I knit about 2.5 needles while I walked around the farm. I used an Eye of Partridge heel. It is an interested texture for this otherwise smooth sock.

While walking and knitting, I was composing this post in my mind. In reviewing it, I think I have only covered about half of my thoughts, I left out the pecan tree that stands like a sentinel in the field that is just beginning to leaf, and I left out the planning for the weekend and the queasy feelings I have whenever I think about DS graduating and the changes coming. Maybe I can hit those another time.

The Cascading Leaves are finished. I can not get a decent photo of them. I will have to try outside. I continued the design down the top of the sock, rather than stopping at the heel. I hope it will be smooth enough in my shoe. It was a fun pattern to knit. The repeat was easy to learn and it formed so quickly, I wanted to knit one more row to see how it would look.

Progress

This week has been our spring break and I have been off work. We are getting alot of things done around the house but not much fun time. I am trying to fit in some knitting.

The silk and bamboo yarn has not worked well in the center pull ball. It seems to tangle with the other yarn and try to pull it out It has taken a long time to detangle. When it was time to knit the second panel for the print o waves shawl, I pulled the yarn from the outside. This worked much better and I now have both of the center patterns complete. I will try to post tomorrow. I took pictures but can't find the card reader to upload a picture. It is now time to graft the two center sections together. I have never done. I have read the directions a couple of times. I am going to put this aside for a day or two, until I am in the right frame of mind.

The second Cascading Leaves sock is down to the heel flap. I hope to finish this one by the weekend.

Needling Along or Slow and Unsteady

Isn't it interesting how much time we spend in planning and writting blogs. I guess this is becoming the journaling of our current day. In my case, it is almost as annoynomous. As we plan our page and type, we hope someone will view the page and be interested in our life. But if not, the conteplative process itself is rather rewarding.

Knitting has been rather slow this past week. Soccer season is still on. I taught two graduate classes at night in addition to my full time job, and the competitve horse show circuit has begun. However, I do have one finished set of socks to share. They are a basketweave pattern in Opal. This was a sock of the month from Fiber, Nooks and Crannys. I am enjoying the club. I tend to use patterned yarn to knit just plain socks. The different patterns they include allow me to see the possibilities of textures and pattern along with the color. I don't think I will continue forever, however, it is currently stretching my eye.

I am down to the decreases in the toes on one of the Cascading Leaves sock. This is the Fleece Artist yarn I am so in love with. The colors are saturated. The changes in color too short to pool. The yarn has a springy texture and feels like it will be a dream to wear.I carry this with me and pull it out at stop lights and those short periods of time when I can knit but can't concentrate.

The stole is coming along, sloooowly. I am more comfortable with the pattern but find I must count on every wrong row as I occassionally forget a YO. This is the project I work on in the evenings, however, I have found myself nodding off while working on it. Last week was reeeeealy long.

I am glad I decided to alternate the yarns. There is too much difference between the two. I had thought I might do the center panel in one and then use the other in the outter pattern. This will work better.

I have learned to place lifelines at the end of each repeat. I have not had to use one yet. Just about the time I get lazy and don't put one in I am sure I will have to frog so I am not taking any chances!!!