Erica’s Blog

Last night, Emily brought some yarn to Knit Night for us to take if we wanted before she donated it away.  This ball of 100% alpaca followed me home, and now I’m petting it, trying to decide what it wants to become.

1:28 a.m., Tuesday, my cell phone rings.  Assuming it’s an emergency, I scramble out of bed & across the room to answer it.  Before answering, I check to see who’s calling, and it just says “Number Withheld”.  I answer, and this conversation ensues:

Erica:  Hello?

Mystery Man:  I would reallly like a piece of pie right now.

Erica:  [Click]

 

My friend Robbyn inherited some yarn from her mom and invited me over to pick through it before she gave the rest to Goodwill.  Here’s what followed me home:

 

My friend Faylene is packing up her house in preparation for putting it on the market, and this morning she gave me this stash of fabric & patterns for Thing Two.  T2 will be SO happy when she sees it!

We were bummed that Adriana & Jesse were sick, so that portion of the family didn’t make it, but we somehow muddled through and had a good time anyway.  Click for bigger, etc.

Thing Two loves to tell jokes - she’s not always good at it, but she loves it, and she never fails to crack herself up.  This is her newest joke, learned from her friend Lauren.

Three men go to the priest because they want to be blessed. The priest tells them that they must first do something bad before he can bless them, so they go off to do something bad.

The first man comes back.  “What did you do?”  “I stole something from a store.”  The priest then sprinkles holy water on him and blesses him.

The second man comes back.  “What did you do?”  “I punched someone in the face.”  The priest then sprinkles holy water on him and blesses him.

The third man comes back.  “What did you do?”  “I peed in the holy water….”

Tidying up a bit ago, I found this WIP I accidentally left out of last week’s WIP Roundup.  The yarn is “souvenir yarn” I purchased when we were in Florence, Italy in July of 2006.  I absolutely LOVED how the yarn looked in the ball.  The colors of it reminded me both of the hills of Tuscany AND the hills of California.  I loved it.  I wanted it.  I had to have it.  I bought two balls of it (about 500 yards).  I hung onto it for two and a half years, waiting for juuuust the right project for it, never even removing the ball bands, much less letting needles come near it.

The week of Stitches, I decided I absolutely HAD to have something new to wear.  I needed something simple and quick that I could finish in time.  I cast on.  I frogged.  I cast on again.  I frogged.  I cast on again, giving up on having it ready in time to wear, but bringing it with me as my simple, take-along knitting.  I even knit on it during my ergonomics class. No matter what size needles I used or whether I used a YO or a KFB for my increases, I didn’t like it.  I set it aside after that weekend to marinate with the other WIPs.  I pulled it out today, and there’s just no way around it:  I HATE THE WAY THIS YARN LOOKS KNIT UP.  There, I said it.  I feel disloyal.  I feel like I’ve betrayed the yarn and my fabulous trip in some way, but I just can’t stand how it looks.

Thing One, my “I love camo and tie dye and peace signs and hippie stuff” girl, likes it.  I tried to talk her into a shrug so I could use up most of the yarn.  She doesn’t want one.  At most, she wants mittens and a hat.  I suspect that I will end up giving away the other ball.  I’m really sad about this.  I did, however, screw up my courage and…frog it all AGAIN.  Sigh.  I guess this relationship just wasn’t meant to be.

We had Thing Two’s peeps over yesterday for a party to celebrate her impending birthday.  I’ve learned a thing or two over the years, so it was from 2:00 to 4:00 (NOT during a mealtime and had an ending time).  This year, I told her she could only invite six friends for a total of eight kids, and she was OK with that. Since she decided to invite only girls, the whole goodie bag thing was much easier.  As it turns out, we didn’t need any games or anything — they played outside, then we did presents and cake, then they all played with the presents after they’d been opened.  Talk about easy!

Then again, there was the fact that the first kid who used the bathroom not only CLOGGED the toilet, but also OVERFLOWED it.  Poor kid.  I think she must have flushed a bunch of times, plus when I went in there, the flush handle was stuck down, perpetually flushing.  Yes, we only have one bathroom, lol.  At least she had the sense to come tell me it was clogged.  I didn’t tell her parents; they would have been mortified, and I didn’t want to embarrass her.  Luckily, cleanup wasn’t too bad, and I dealt with the biohazard.  Blech!

Click on the pictures for bigger, captions, etc.