withdrawal

A,

I had a dream that I went to your parents' house for Easter and we met up and were going to do some crafting, only I didn't have any yarn and so I couldn't make anything. Which is true in real life as well. I am growing frantic with basically nothing to work on. Well that's not exactly true. I do have a six-month old mitten project that I decided to rip back to increase the length . . . but that's about it. How did this happen?

It starts with me not being you. That is, I don't stash. (James would disagree, but he doesn't really know anything about knitting.) Then we add on the fact that I happen to have recently finished the few projects that I was working on. And while I had projects lined up to start after I was done, I didn't bother to buy the yarn until just now. So I put in an order online, not yet able to bring myself to trust the "local" yarn store again after the tragedy with the previous sock yarn.

It's been two weeks and the yarn has not yet arrived. No yarn! No knitting! Withdrawal!

I am barely coping.

Plus we just moved and our house has giant house spiders. Well, perhaps not authentic giant house spiders, but they are huge and they are spiders and they do make me worry that when I sleep at night they are going to crawl into my mouth. Even if that is just an urban legend.

Did I tell you that my plan was to train for a triathlon? Isn't that ridiculous? Can you even see me doing that? Well, I've been running in the mornings with Dutch (who likes to occasionally dart into the street when he spots roadkill), although now that we've moved I don't have a route. It's probably just an excuse, because it shouldn't take too long to figure out a running path, but I am enjoying sleeping in.

You will be moving soon? Our house is lovely--despite the few bugs. I wish I was close enough for people to visit, because it feels a little big for the two of us. I also wish James was working less so he could help me put all of our crap away. I also wish my yarn would arrive.

K

Camera too much work

K,

Babe! I missed you. Love the sock...interesting colors. Seems you had a bit of pooling going on there. I can direct you to this Rav page of very bad examples of pooling...yours may not be the worst.

I miss ya, babe. The summer is already looking at it's middle point and heading toward the end. Argh! And thus, I must sleep to be ready to work hard tomorrow, so you's getting no pictures. Just imagine for the time being. Perhaps someday it will not be 90 degrees outside with a dew point of 73, whatever that means. (I'm told that means it's hot. I could have told you that.)

So sorry I've been gone for so very long, anybody whos wondered. I know it seems as if I was swept up by the floodwaters and carried off down to Missouri. Thankfully, no, I'm still maintaining my existence in this sludge and mud filled town. While the water levels are still apparently in the flood range, we don't need a boat to get through town anymore.

So while I became extremely pent up in my house and Kris’s, thank goodness I was still able to get to him, I first went actual crazy, then went craft crazy. I think the craftiness was to deal with the actual insanity. I was a bit inspired, and over the flood break I mostly worked on two things:

1) A recycled fused plastic bag messenger bag with an octopus on it.

2) A giant squid softie, or stuffed squid. However, when I say I made a stuffed squid over the break, most people think I cooked, which I did not. We were supposed to conserve water and electricity. So in a very greasy, hungry, smelly manner, I crafted.

Since then I’ve been doing a bit of knitting with my handspun llama on this lace scarf. However, you can see a few problems highlighted in the picture. I messed up where I was in the repeat and added to many holes. This automatically makes it not state fair worthy. In addition, I don’t know that I really like the pattern all that much. Thoughts, comments, queries?

All in all, my life was pretty boring! I’ve started exercising a lot for me, which is about an hour a day. Kris and I revel in each other’s company. We’d never actually been together for a full week before where neither of us had to study. It’s delightful. And I’m crafting! My next plan is to finish the octopus bag and work on some grocery store reusable fabric bags. For these I’d love to use decorator fabric with a night tight weave and sturdy hand, but there’s not much selection for the price at the Jo-Anns here, and while I love the Japanese cottons from Home Ec, I just can’t handle $18/yd for grocery bag fabric.

The sheep and wool festival that my cousin and I were going to be at near Des Moines was unfortunately cancelled. Which was disappointing, obviously, since I was planning on hanging out and learning some new information on my favourite fiber activities. And then our college reunion was canceled/rescheduled, so I’ve just been lying low, trying to get healthy. Spending too much money on athletic wear in the hopes that it will help.

So I told people that I’d do a few things this summer since I had time…and I’ve definitely not gotten to them yet, but I’ll list them so far, just to hold myself accountable:

1) Write up a good, solid, complete pictorial instruction on how to dismantle and frog sweaters

2) Write up the pattern for my reversible cable scarf that I’m calling “Phase Shift,” which I think would be much better if I just turned it into an instruction on how to change regular cables into reversible cables. (Which I don’t know how to do yet, but I’ve got some ideas.

So there you go. That’s how I am, take it or leave it.

As my instructional Yoga DVD says, Namaste,

A

Pickles

A,

Last time I heard the floods were invading and Iowa was practically underwater. I hope things are a little dryer now? As your floods disappear our monsoons are setting in, although this is more of a relief for us. So far we've seen more clouds than rain, but even that can be something to enjoy.

I finished my first sock.



Yes, this is most likely the ugliest sock yarn one could find. I don't understand how something could look so appealing in a ball of yarn yet so horrendous after being knitted up. It appears to be camo for the foot. Perhaps I would find sock knitting more addictive if I had more appealing yarn. For the time being, until further notice, I believe I will leave the variegated yarn where it belongs--on the shelf.

We will be moving into our new home in a week, and in anticipation of the move, we have been looking for a bundle of bunny to keep Hazel company. This is the fluffy fur ball the stork dropped on us:



It really is turning into an animal farm here. But seriously. This is it. This is where I draw the line. The only reason we considered getting a second rabbit was because James kept complaining that Hazel wasn't a mini lop. And because rabbits are supposed to be much happier in pairs.



So this is Pickles. Adorable, tiny, loves to be held. . . But messy. And persistently un-litterbox trained. And sick. The day after we got her we noticed she was sneezing. And sneezing and sneezing. To the vet we went yet again. Now we've just recently taken her out of quarantine and attempted a better introduction between the two.

What did I expect? Frankly, I was hoping for sweet bunny love and suitable snuggling partners. And it wasn't completely out of the question to hope for such things. They had been introduced briefly with no detrimental outcome. They had even been stealing illicit kisses while Pickles was still behind bars. All good signs, no? We took them to neutral territory, out of the apartment--what else could we have done?

So two little bunnies, hopping around while two proud parents looked on. It didn't take long for them to make a nest together in the corner of the room. Calm, snuggling, peaceful--I thought we had hit gold.

We left the room. They were happy! There was no reason to keep a constant eye on them! But then, oh no. We hear scurrying several minutes later and rush in to find Pickles, sweet little pickles chasing Hazel, nipping her on the rear. Nipping and pawing and no longer happy. Knocking over food and water bowls. No longer the perfect pair that we thought they would be for each other. And now? No more bunny kisses between the bars of the cage; now they are little nips. Separated again. Unhappy.

And Pickles still is not litter box trained. She's peed on James twice.

I am consoling Hazel at the moment with many pets while Dutch is forcefully licking her face. You'd think vegetarian animals would be more peaceful. I guess lettuce does not breed harmony.

K