Friday, May 01, 2009

Hearts of Darkness

Ave! Old knitter of black wool. Morituri te salutant.
Joseph Conrad, “Heart of Darkness”

Okay, I have not been knitting with any black wool, but I was listening to a pod cast of “Heart of Darkness” and I loved the imagery of the knitter in the recruitment office sending sailors to their doom.
I have quite a bit of knitting news today…
1st – I escaped the clutches of my in-laws long enough to go over to the MN Knitter’s Guild Yarnover on 4/18. There were many fabulous vendors, including Black Water Abbey. I have been lusting over their yarn on line for sometime and not been brave enough to buy any without seeing it in person to make sure I would like it. I have to say. It is awesome and the colors are as beautiful in person as they are on-line. If you have been thinking about buying some, I would not hesitate. I bought a couple of patterns (one for a vest and one for a trio of aran hats), enough yarn to knit the vest for me and a couple of hats.
Everything I bought can be seen here:
I bought some stuff from others as well. I bought a skein of Stella from Alpacas of the Ark. I try to buy something from them whenever I can because the yarn is so lovely and the owner I so nice. I bought a kit to make a sock monkey hat for The Baby. And some other yarn that was just a good deal. Plus, my DH was with and we bought him some roving and mohair locks for him to spin. Here are the results:

Pretty cool, huh?

2nd - Last Saturday, DH and I went out and about looking for trouble. Okay, we were really looking for a locket for The Girl for Mother’s Day, but we ended up at The Yarnery who happened to be having a sale… you know how it goes…
Here is what I bought at The Yarnery.

I purchased no black wool, but I did get navy wool and black alpaca. So, it is close. We also stop down at Zandy’s in the morning and I saw the pattern I am going to make for my mom. I have been looking for cardigan to make for her for Christmas, something stylish, but not too over the top. Zandy’s had a shop sample of Mr. Greenjeans and I just fell in love with it. I think it will be perfect. When I looked it up on Knitty, I realized that I had looked at it, but I did not like it the first time I saw it. I think the yarn sort of obscured the beauty of the pattern. So I am going to go back down there to buy yarn since the gal was so helpful when I asked for information about the pattern.

3rd – UPDATE -- I have been plugging away at my Daily Sweater. No photo, I am making progress. However, it is going really slowly. I have been managing to knit 1 – 2 rounds a day. At this rate I will have it done in 5 years! I just have not had much time to focus on knitting outside of my bus time and I have missed my morning bus several times this week.
I also have cast on the back of my Foxy Vest. I have 8 rows done. I am concerned that I have these two huge projects that I am focusing on and I will never finish either one. This is bad just because I sort of feel like what’s the point if nothing will come of it. I decided this morning that I need to finish some small project so that I know I can accomplish something. I have a hat that I am almost done with; I just need to find my dpns so I can finish it up. I am going to look for them and try to finish that up this weekend so that I feel like I am capable of finishing projects.

Lastly in the knitting new category, I found something I have been searching for. DH and I went to the thrift store the other day and I found some Muench Touch Me there. I bought a few balls and a bunch of old pattern booklets. I was quite pleased with myself. However, the next day at work I kept thinking, I should have bought enough of the Touch Me so I could knit that beret in “Folk Hats”. So when my husband picked me up at the bus stop, I asked if we could stop at the thrift store and I could see if the yarn was still there. He said it was fine and he would wait in the car. SO in I went. The yarn was still there and picked it up and thought, Hey maybe I will glance at the book section and see if there are any knitting books that were dropped off at the same time as this yarn and the knitting booklets I bought yesterday. And look what I found:

Yes, you see that right, not one but TWO Alice Starmore books. I have wanted to get my hands on the Fair Isle knitting book for some time and I nearly jumped up and down right there in the thrift store when I saw it. I also picked up the British Knits book because it had some interesting items in it. How much do you think I paid for these 3 books? $4.37! You read that right, four dollars and 37 cents for all 3 combined! YEAH!! I could hardly contain myself as I paid for my booty. It was the highlight of my week. I know; I do not have a very exciting life. I am the 1st to admit it.

Dark Lost Hearts
Okay, I have to discuss this week’s “Lost” episode (The Variable). I could not believe that anyone could send their child off knowing that the child would die. Not just die, but that the parent would be the one to kill the child. I could not do it. I realize that it might mess up the time space continuum or whatever, but I could not do it. Poor Daniel, to be cursed with such a mother. It was nice to get confirmation that Daniel was indeed the product of the Others. There has been some discussion that perhaps Daniel and Penny were twins. I think this is a possibility. The only problem I have it with this is that Ben told Widmore that he had to leave The Island because he had a child with someone from off of The Island. Eleanor was originally an Other; surely she would be okay to have children with even if she was off of The Island.

Can the Losties destroy the Swan and there by prevent them coming to The Island in the first place? I don’t think they will succeed. And even if they did, blowing up a hydrogen bomb would more than likely kill most of the people on The Island. What would happen to the world (okay Desmond) if Penny did not exist? What if Miles and Charlotte did not leave The Island? It would be CHAOS. The other concern I have with the hydrogen bomb is that I heard a rumor that the series might end like “The Stand”. I hope not, because I HATED the ending of that book. In fact, when I finished it, I threw it across the room I was so mad! It was total cop out and I did not spend all these years devoted to Lost to be totally ripped off.

Will Desmond go back to The Island? It seems like there is more that needs to be done with Desmond and Penny, but maybe I am wrong. Maybe this will be the last we see of them. They seem like they are happy enough… which on Lost is a huge warning flag. Happiness? Not allowed!

How Sharper Than a Serpents Tooth It Is
To Have a Thankless Child
– King Lear

So on Sunday night, okay really Monday morning at 1:00 am The Girl hollered up the stairs to see if I would come and take care of The Baby for a while. As I came down the stairs I could hear her yelling at The Boyfriend. I took The Baby and sat down with her and I could hear The Boyfriend storming out of the house. Now, it was rainy out and he doesn’t have a car, so I do not know where he was going, but I figure there was something going on that I really did not want to be a part of. The Baby was very fussy and I was working on getting her settled down. She would stop for a few minutes and then start up crying again. Even singing the theme song to Gilligan’s Island did not help. Okay, I do not know very many songs, but I do know all the words to several TV shows, she is going have to take what she gets!
Anyway, finally The Girl came out and said that The Boyfriend had made some crack about how we (my husband and I) never help with The Baby and that if they lived at his mom’s house she would help out all of the time. The Girl told him that she had been up all of Saturday night with The Baby and his mom had woken up and helped with The Baby. In fact, she had not gotten up until 9:30 in the morning. And that had apparently caused him to storm out of the house. Now most mornings, I have been getting up between 4 -5 in the morning to take care of The Baby. I usually take care of her a couple of hours in the evening. DH takes care of her most of the morning. Plus, did I mention, I am paying all of the bills, the mortgage, the grocery, the doctor and hospital bills. Also, his family would not even speak to him because he took up with The Girl until The Baby was born. I personally was furious, but I held my tongue because The Girl had defended us and she was upset. Anyway, The Girl decided The Baby needed to be fed and brought her into her room. At that point, I very calmly explained that most people who have babies do not get any help from anyone. They stay up all night with their baby and then get up and go to a job. The Girl said she had told him that and she knew that. I am still irritated about the whole thing, but I think The Boyfriend might have been told off more later, as he has been very civil all week. It just bugs me because the truth is that I did not have to let him live in my house and feed him and be nice to him. I did it because I am so damn nice! Okay, really I did it because I want to make The Girl happy. It is all I have ever wanted.

Hmmm…. Why does grandma sing me a song about a talking horse?

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