It's been a busy few weeks here. Work has been crazy. Family has been crazy. Life has been crazy. All in a very good way, but still, CRAZY TOWN. So it only seemed appropriate when I got on the elevator for a meeting I was scheduled to attend late last week, and the floor where I was headed had been renamed.
That more or less summs up how my days have been going. So, with huge apologies for not blogging and doing a horrible job of staying in touch with all of my favorite knitters the past couple of weeks, I'm back. Back with my %$#@& KAL sock. I love this sock. Love the pattern. Love the way the colors are laying down. It practically knit itself with all of the flying I've been doing.
Is there some trauma associated with the Kitchener stitch and late nights? If there isn't, I must be cursed. I love knitting top down socks, and a big part of the reason is that I enjoy Kitchener stitch. It's like magic — you weave a little and the toes line up perfectly. There was no magic with this sock. It looked awful when I finished. I ripped it out, and you'll never guess, but that bad 1:00 am lighting in my living room combined with tiny size one needle stitches was really not a thing. I sort of got them back on the needles. I tried it again while driving (I was the passenger, not the driver — I'm not that close to the edge) on an overcast day with bad lighting, and it came out even worse. And ripping it out made me sad because, as you all know, sometimes, you're loose track of where you are when all those tiny size one stitches pop right off the needles as you go over a bump.
My stitches are on, but not in the right order or on the right needles. It's going to take some sorting out to figure when I am, so I'm going to gently and lovingly place this sock in time out, and cast on for its mate. I'm pretty sure my Kitchener mojo will come back, but it's going to require a serious combination of all of my favorite comfort foods — and some bright lighting.
While I was out of town and away from the blog, some really exciting things happened.
I visited my College, which I hadn't done in over a decade, and found out that all of the things I loved about it were still there, but even better. Sometimes, you actually can go back. Even better, on the return drive to the airport, I discovered a B&B/Alpaca Farm. I was concerned about being the crazy lady who stopped on the middle of the road to take pictures of the Alpacas, so you just get this one sneak peek, but it's definitely on my shortlist. The online reviews say to make sure you visit with Brutus, who is a very friendly Alpaca. Oh my heavens!
The sense that I was living in a surreal fantasy world where all of my dreams came true continued when I got home and realized that for my husband's birthday, I could order his favorite cake. It's a day long adventure to make it, so I was delighted to reduce it to a 15 minute pick up detail. Although we had friends over, there were leftovers. The cat with the cake is Bob. I was definitely much more restrained and lady like than that.
And finally, the square of concrete is my long awaited fire pit. We have a small, urban yard with a strong down hill slant, but as we've lived through our six months of hell deck reconstruction and landscaping, I've persistently insisted that we include a fire pit in the project. In anticipation, I dragged kids out to World Market, and snagged some fabulous outdoor chairs on sale last weekend. As soon as the pit is dry, I'm christening it with S'mores. But, I'll make sure I leave my socks and needles behind. Because It's been that kind of month!
