What happened next....

Hello!

Well, when last I posted, I had caught up to the weekend, so we'll pick up from there.

On Saturday mornings, I like to go out for breakfast. (Well, all the other mornings too....but especially Saturday!) Fairly often I stop by my youngest brother's house and "pick a kid" to go along. This time, it didn't look like anyone was home, but I thought I'd give it a shot. I went in and yelled, "Hello, anyone home??" Silence. Called up the stairs, "Hello?? Anyone here??" Nothing "Anyone want to go to McDonalds?" BANG!!! The sound of a 10-year-old girl leaping out of bed and racing down the stairs! "Hmmm, you'll want to maybe get dressed??????"

After breakfast, we drove to the hospital to see if we could visit her mom and new baby sister. Turns out they had just fallen asleep for only the second time in 2 days, so we did not accomplish that! Then she needed to be driven to softball, and supervised during the cleaning of her room and other chores. Turns out you can get quite a bit of a sock cuff done while waiting for softball pictures and reminding someone to put in another load of laundry!

Before I started knitting on Sunday, I got out my bead stash and made some stitch markers. Knitting at Lunch had asked me to make some for purchase! The difference between a yarn stash and a bead stash is that you can spend a chunk of money on beads, yet still store them (with tools) in a shoe box!

Here is a small sample - sorry, camera quality has not yet reached priority in the budget. It was fun tho, and I'm glad I spent some time on it. I also have some for myself and some gifts. (Hmm, maybe we'll need to have a contest - I have prizes all ready!!)

Sunday knitting was devoted to my blanket project. Tragically, the Cardinal's games were against Detroit, and that is one of the FOUR cities we are blacked out of, so I was not able to watch any baseball while knitting. (Since we lost all three games, it was not as tragic a thing as it could have been.) I finished 4 rows and then decided to measure and calculate the remainder. Laura, you will be so proud! I used your formula of: x=number of rows per inch y=number of inches needed z=number of days left so that: y times x divided by z equals number of rows to knit per day. The answer is: 8! So, I knitted 8 more rows so that Sunday's knitting was complete.

Monday I did not knit on the blanket, so I am behind 8 rows. (Tuesday I knit 10 rows, so I made up a little bit...)

Since the blanket is pretty bulky, I have been knitting on my socks at lunch. On Monday, I finished the cuff and began the heel. Now, I don't know WHY I think I like short row heels, but I do. I have not yet knit a short-row heel without ripping it back at least 4 times, but I do not let that interfere with my perceived love of short-row heels. I think that it's because I learned to knit backwards, and that is SO handy for short-rows. This time I decided to try the "Japanese Short-Row Heels." I ended up on the directions at the Blue Blog. I sat at my desk during lunch with the directions on the computer screen, and got almost 1/2 way done with the heel.

On Tuesday, I decided to "wing it" since it was going so well, and knitted in the conference room with Lauren. Ended up ripping it twice during that lunch hour, and gave up and put in a life-line and returned to the wrapped short-rows. But I love short-row heels, yes I do!!!

The sock is in "time-out" for being bad. Bad, BAD sock!!

So for a portable project, I dug out a ball of Lorna's Laces that has resisted any of the project ideas I've suggested to it so far, and I'm trying to make a pair of fingerless mitts by adapting the Jaywalker Sock pattern. We'll see. It is the second most obstinate yarn I've ever chosen. (And the MOST obstinate is now taking up space in someone else's stash - just a little warning there...)

And finally, I've been tagged on like 3 meme's so I'll put one here. From The Rebellious Pastor's Wife....

Here it is.... "What did you want to be when you were 5, 10, 15, and 20?

Well.

Age 5 - a mommy. That's what my mom was, so that's what I would be!

Age 10 - a mom. PLUS maybe a detective. (I'd discovered Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden.) Possibly a nurse. (Sue Barton and Cherry Ames.)

Age 15 - teacher at a deaf school. (I was at summer camp the same week as a group of younger deaf students and I really enjoyed interacting with them and figuring out how to communicate.)

Age 20 - a mom. Hello - that's what my mom was! (While my father often pointed out the opportunities that the Equal Rights Amendment opened up for me, he also really appreciated and honored my mother’s job in our family. The fact that he went to work every day and brought home a paycheck was no more important than what she did with that check, and how she cared for all of us.) I didn't really want a career, just a job until the husband and babies came along. Which is probably a good part of the reason that I've had various "jobs" over the past 25 years, but never a specific "career path." Well, that plus my tendancy to "reinvent myself" every 7-10 years. I've worked in the auto-manufacturing industry, the church and now the insurance industry. I'm past the age for kids, but if that future-husband-who-supports-me-while-I-knit is reading this.......

Reminds me of a conversation I had with 2 of my now-grown-nieces when they were about 10.

“Aunt Cynthia, when you were our age, what did you want to be when you grew up?”
“A mom.”
“Yes, but what did you want to BE?”
“A mom.”
“I know, but besides that, what did you want to DO???”
“A mom.”

It made me sad that while we’ve opened the world to little girls to imagine and be whatever they want, we forgot to tell them that “just” being a mom is one of those choices, and a wonderful one at that. I'm proud that both of those little girls have an education, and have worked in their fields. Both are now “moms,” one works part-time, and one stays at home. I’m glad that they while they chose something to “be,” they got to be moms as well!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter!)