It's got to get better

Just a note, added later: Upon rereading this post, I'm noticing that it's very "me, me, me" -- especially the parts about the funeral. I just want to mention that the family was very gracious when I spoke with them and apologized (profusely) afterward.


So I've had a hacking cough for a few days now, enough to be annoying during the day and keep me awake at night (as if having Jamie in the house wasn't enough).

Yesterday I started to lose my voice after playing and singing (and coughing through) weekly Mass with the parochial school kids and a funeral immediately after.

There's a hole in the knee of my favorite jeans.

This morning I had to play another funeral at a neighboring parish. I thought it was at 11:00. When I got there at 10:20, the priest was already singing the Gospel Acclamation. Without accompaniment. Because the organist (me!) was late. Because the funeral apparently started at 10:00.

I dashed up the stairs to the choir loft and proceeded to announce my presence by dropping a hymnal on the keyboard as I was frantically trying to set up for the next song. I am not kidding. I dropped a freaking hymnal on the freaking keyboard. Can you imagine the lovely sound that reverberated through the nave? It's a good thing Fr. Mike likes me.

I croaked my way through the rest of the service, and redeemed myself fairly well until ... well, let's see if I can explain what happened next. I was to play a lovely song called "Eye Has Not Seen." The accompaniment books at this other church do not have the full organ arrangements, they only have the melody and chords. But "Eye Has Not Seen" has a beautiful introduction, and I've played it enough that I know it by heart. So I started playing the intro, then realized that I was not playing the intro to "Eye Has Not Seen," I was playing the intro to a completely different song, and not only that, but this completely different song was in a completely different key than "Eye Has Not Seen." So it went kinda like this: play play play play (me: oh, this is great, I'm so glad I'm remembering this beautiful introduction) play play play play, start singing (me: oh crap, this song is in two sharps, why am I playing in three flats, oh NO that was the intro to "We Have Been Told" guess I better just start playing the right song) complete tonal shift play sing play sing. What a train wreck.

Then I grafted the toe of my first Charade sock knit purl knit purl instead of knit purl purl knit so instead of a lovely invisible seam, it's got a row of purl bumps across the toe. I could scream.

But this morning Jamie laughed out loud for the first time, and hearing that after a sleepless night was like a tonic, and hearing it again this evening before his bedtime routine got started made the whole day go away.

It sounds like I'm complaining and I'm really not. The day just got to a point where it was just ridiculous how wrong things were going. I just had to laugh and list them all down because it truly was unreal. I'm grateful for these little problems, especially when I realize that if a few sleepless nights and embarrassing moments are all I have to worry about right now, then I am truly blessed.

Some cute kids

If I do say so myself...

Done and done

So I finished both the Garter Mitts and the Chevron Scarf last week, Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, respectively. It took all weekend to get the pictures taken, and then this long to have a half an hour to myself at the computer. I'm disappointed by the color in this photo; it's not quite accurate. The photos in my last post show the purply-greeny-bluey blend a lot better.

They're lovely, mooshy, smooshy, comfy mitts and I can't wait until it's cool enough to wear them. Actually, I could have used them last night!

I did have to frog the scarf back a bit to finish up the mitts, but it still ended up being 70 inches long. The pattern called for a 77 1/2 inch scarf. I think it's quite long enough, though.

It really blocked out well. I love the changing waves of color. This pattern was an absolute pleasure to knit, especially in the current state of my life. It was just interesting enough to keep me coming back to it, but mindless enough so that I could set it down at anytime and come back to it at anytime. I could have kept knitting this for a while, which is really saying something for a scarf made from fingering weight yarn.

It's likely I'd use this pattern again; I liked knitting it that much.

So I've started swatching for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan -- so excited! And still slogging along on the Charade socks, sigh.

Hey, Happy October! I love the Fall!

One of my WIPs

So here's the half-done first Garter Mitt. The project is similar to Ann Budd's wristwarmers from Weekend Knitting in the sideways construction with short rows, but Ysolda Teague adds an ingeniously constructed thumb. The pattern is written for sport weight yarn, but I wanted to use Jo's handspun so they would be in the same yarn as my scarf. The yarn is fingering weight, so I doubled it and I was getting pretty close to the pattern's gauge, but the resulting fabric was too dense, and using up the yarn too fast.

So I went up two needle sizes and the fabric was much nicer -- still firm enough to keep out wind and precipitation, but drapey enough to be comfortable. Unfortunately, the stitch count was now off, which I expected, but I didn't adjust for it enough (hand was too short, wrist/arm was too long). Frog! So the third time I was very careful and, except for having to tink and reknit the thumb a couple of times, it's worked out much better.

Have I mentioned how yummy this yarn is? The colors are so rich and deep, and the garter stitch makes it feel even smooshier and lovlier.

I've taken a break from the scarf to knit these up, since I don't know how much yarn I'll need. If I run out before the pair is finished, I'll rip back the scarf a little. It's plenty long already, so loosing a few inches won't hurt it.

I'm so glad the weather is cooling off and it will soon be time to wrap myself in wooly goodness!

Quote of the week, from Rose. She said to me yesterday morning, "It's Fall now!" I said, "Yes, Fall is coming soon." "No," she said, "Fall is when the children go back to school, and I'm going back to school today [after the weekend], so it's Fall today." :) According to Rose logic, we'll have Fall once a week until June.

Fall Startitis

It got cool for a couple of days and I got a pretty bad case (for me) of Startitis.

To wit:

One pair of Christine's Baby Booties for Jamie's baptism (nearly finished).

Mom made my nephew Noah's baptism outfit, and now Jamie is going to wear it. She told me she couldn't find the bonnet or booties, though. Luckily, we were gifted with a hanky bonnet, and, well, booties are never a problem for a crazy knitter! I love the pair Jo sent me so much I used the same pattern with some white yarn I had left over from Jamie's sweater.

I also started a pair of Garter Mitts. No photo since I've started over about four times to make various adjustments for gauge. Also since it's been raining and the light is lousy for picture taking anyway. I think I've finally figured out what needles and stitch count are going to work for the yarn I'm using, so there should be a photo or two in the next post.

I also bought enough yarn (and then some) for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan from IK Fall 2007.

Rachel and I attended Ewe-Nique Knits annual Fall sale and I promised myself I'd only buy yarn if I had an actual project in mind for it. I've known that I needed to knit this sweater since I first saw it a year ago, but I was waiting to start until I was wearing pre-pregnancy clothes again. Then to find all this Silky Wool on sale! The only thing keeping me from casting on is I have four projects on the needles, which is one more than I normally like to have. I can't wait (but I'm going to)!

My Big Girl

Rose started preschool yesterday.

She was so excited. We'd visited many times (the preschool is in the same building as our church offices) and she never wanted to leave after we peeked in. Finally, she was there to stay for the whole morning!

When we went in, her teacher asked if she'd like to paint. Boy howdy, you'd have thought she offered her a million chocolate chip cookies.



My last words to Rose as I left: "'Bye, baby. I love you."

Her last words to me? "'Bye, mommy. Have fun." No tears, no hesitation, no glance back, nothing. She was too busy painting.


When Andy and I went to take her home at noon, she didn't want to leave. After we had lunch, she was ready to go back. We had to tell her she had to wait until the next morning. I think she had a good time.

Oh my goodness

Two weird yarn-related items:

#1 The Bizarre Case of the Exploding Knitting Needle Old news, but who ever said I was on top of current events?

#2 Crocheted Mythbusters I can think of no better reason than this to pick up my crochet hook again. :D

And look, I've made it past the heel of my first Charade!

I may yet finish this pair of socks this year.