"properly practiced, knitting soothes
the
troubled spirit...
and it doesn't
hurt the untroubled spirit either."
~elizabeth zimmerman
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Friday, June 29, 2007
6 comments 
Freaky Fridays
I have a new one for you. Exciting for you, but painful for me! This one happened yesterday, so you got it here first. The background: apparently I am weirdly shaped. I see my body as basically a tall rectangle (as attractive as that sounds), but for some reason pants are always too short. In order to get pants that are long enough, I almost always have to buy pants that are way too big in the waist (about 1/2 size or more too big). I can use belts to help, but sometimes that ends up creating the oh-so-fashionable "paper-bag" look. So more than I'd care to admit, I resort to large safety pins. Well, I was pulling on some pants yesterday that I had forgotten to remove the safety pin from the last time I wore them. And as I pulled the pants up I felt a sharp stab in my right thigh. I quickly pulled the pants back down, and as I did, I felt a good half of that jumbo safety pin pull back out of my leg. If I could have heard it, I'm sure it would have made a sucking sound. The area was stinging so badly, but I was running late for a dental appointment, so I decided just to go. I didn't see blood seeping through my pant leg or anything, and it stopped hurting after about 45 minutes (could it have gone into the muscle?). Last night when I was changing into my pjs, I looked down at the area and not only do I have the red little pin-prick mark, but I have a nice, quarter-sized red/purple bruise. I ask you -- who does this? Who doesn't even notice a honkin' big safety pin and stabs herself in the leg? The Boy was talking tetanus shots last night when I told him the story (oh, the wild and wacky world of being married to an R.N.). Then The Boy decided to make me feel better by telling me of his own safety pin incident. Heh. We so belong together. The Boy went to USC and was in the famous USC Trojan Marching Band. They went to play at Notre Dame and after a long day of rehearsals he got back to his hotel and noticed that his pants had split down the back, along the butt-al region. Being a boy, he didn't know how to sew the pants, and he had to perform the next day. Thus, the magic of safety pins. He pinned the whole seam down and off he went to play and dance and march. At one point during the halftime show, they were on the field, down on the ground when suddenly BOING! one of the pins came unhooked/latched and poked The Boy in some sensitive areas. The Trojan Marching Band does not break for anything, so he just kept going, getting stabbed in the ass with every step he took and every move he made. Is it wrong that I was laughing wildly at this story? ;) Maybe my pants stabbing me in the thigh isn't so bad after all? Wednesday, June 27, 2007 2 comments
A Note to My Mother: For The Record
Despite years of my agonizing protests and refusal to eat anything even remotely green and healthy: I am eating broccoli right now. VOLUNTARILY. But don't get any crazy ideas about brussels sprouts. Those little baby devil cabbages are still beyond redemption. That is all. Saturday, June 23, 2007 4 comments
Addictive Personalities Beware!
Ravelry is so crazy addictive. I've just spent 4 hours uploading a teeny tiny bit of stash and ogling other people's pages. I foresee many a sleepless night! If you're on Ravelry, friend me: my username is conchobara! 3 comments
Freaky Fridays (on Saturday)
Hey all. Sorry about delaying FF for ya, but I was down with a migraine most of yesterday and a good portion of today. Today's FF actually is a triad belonging to my (bio)dad. He is klutzy, so you know I come by it honestly, but this Freaky Friday is really about his unbelievably bad luck for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If I were to relate to you just one of these stories it would seem sad or scary, maybe even unbelievable. But when you get all three together, it's funny because it seems so ridiculously impossible! A few years ago (bio)dad (hereafter known as bd) was on the bus heading to work when a guy pulled a gun and shot the man standing in front of bd on the bus. I know! Kept him off the bus for awhile, I'll tell you what! Then, about a year later, bd was at work with another guy (working the graveyard shift), and he decided to walk outside to get some air. When he got out there, he found a man who had been stabbed in their parking lot. Naturally, when the police got there they had some questions for bd as to his whereabouts and actions before they were called. Fortunately he had a co-worker there with him who could vouch for his whereabouts. Which is unusual, because working the graveyard shift, he's usually flying solo. THEN (oh yes, there's more) a few years ago, I was at work and somebody came into the office telling us about some madman sniper shooting at cars on the 5 freeway in Glendale (California). Uh-oh, bd lives in Glendale. Sure enough (and really, what are the odds?!) it was someone in his apartment building!!!! Because bd works the graveyard shift, he was asleep, so he missed most of the hullabaloo. Which, as it turns out, was a pretty darn good thing because one of the shots the madman fired before he started picking off cars on the freeway came right through bd's living room window and was embedded in the wall. It's still there to this day--he put a frame around it. So, there you go. If you ever think you have it bad, think about bd and his incredibly bad, horrific and just plain crazy luck! Wednesday, June 20, 2007 2 comments
Lotus Knits Contest!
Lotus Knits is having a contest to enter to win some Gorgeous (yes, with a capital 'G') yarn that she dyed. To enter her contest, one has only to include a picture of your first finished knitted item or the next item in your queue that has not been cast on yet. Sadly, I never got a picture of my first knitted item--a scarf for my little sister, all pink and white fluff. So instead, what will I be casting on for next? I'm currently working on socks for myself, but you know me; that's going out the window because I entered another swap! This one is for a notions bag. After looking around for a bit, I've settled on one of these two.  Option #1 is from LMKG* and I've wanted to make it for awhile now. So pretty!  Option #2 is from Knitty, and is one of the very first patterns I printed out when I first began knitting and discovered Knitty 3 years ago. This option is slightly more exciting because I love buttons, and would get to use one or more. But I haven't made a final decision yet. What do you think? Option #1 or #2? ****************** *Hey, did any of you read the article on Joelle Hoversen in the most recent Blueprint magazine? It was very cool! She has an amazing apartment and they had pictures from Purl and a sneak peek at the sweet little room she's created for her upcoming arrival (though I'm not sure if it's upcoming anymore, at this point). Tuesday, June 19, 2007 1 comments
Oh My Goodness-Oh My Goodness
So much has gone on lately that I would like to blog about, but I don't want things to get lost in one looooong post, so I'll just have to parcel them out over the next couple of posts (and at the rate I go, that could be months!). So the most important thing first: I got my awesome package from my ISE4 pal the night before we left for our anniversary trip to Santa Barbara. So, please forgive the delay in getting this information--and my HUGE thanks--out. My swap pal was MoniDew , and boy, did she spoil me. Here are some pics of the goodies.  When I got home, I found this lovely box chock full of wrapped packages--yay! What could they all be??  Wow. Just, wow. Moni went to so much trouble to find just perfect gifts for me. Look at all the swag! She responded to my strong belief in breast cancer awareness and my desire to get back into yoga. I love Miso soup, and the candle smells just divine. Mmmmm. And how did she know how much I'm into organge right now?!  Please forgive the awful, sideways picture. I haven't quite figured out how to rotate pictures on my home computer (got it down at work, though!). This is my luscious scarf from Moni. It's in the Falling Water pattern. I'm not sure of the yarn but it is soooo soft and I adore the colors--which are pretty accurate here.  And another view of the scarf--as headband. I am a terrible photographer anyway, but when forced to take a picture of me wearing an item...well, let's just say that there were about 15 pictures of my back, the wall, the door and some items behind me. I immediately put this lovely in my purse and took it on our trip to Santa Barbara--though it's hot right now in CA, it was cool in the evening by the beach, so this came in mightily handily. There is no thank you big enough to send Moni for this beautiful, thoughtful package. I was so thrilled to open each and every item. THANK YOU, MONI!!! What a great swap partner!! (And, by the way, check out Moni's blog for healthy living tips--she knows a little something about this, being a nutritionist and all!) Friday, June 15, 2007 1 comments
Freaky Fridays
Hey peeps, sorry for depriving you of FF last week. The Boy and I were off to Santa Barbara to celebrate our first anniversary (of marriage; we've had five anniveraries of being together). I have so much to blog about, and no time to do it in this week! I'm really going to try to get online this weekend to give you pictures and more information. Due to our vacation (long weekend; we returned Monday night) and a supersized dental visit on Tuesday (5 hours in the chair!!!), I've been running like a mad woman at work, playing catchup on everything. Le sigh. Soon I will have pictures for you of WAY TOO MUCH YARN (in The Boy's opinion, not mine, natch!), the cutest sea lion, a crab that collects yarn (really!), and some yarn-related goodies, including the AMAZING package from my ISE4 pal, MoniDew. What a truly wonderful pal. I'll give more details later, but she has been a commenter on this blog during the swap, sent me several cute little emails as we went along, and mailed me a mind-blowingly perfect package. I am so in awe of her swapper fu! ******* Now, for why you really come here: more ways in which I've injured, hurt or otherwise embarrassed myself recently. ;) So I mentioned a couple of posts ago the totally not real rabbit that is hanging out with us at work--but not really, of course, because I'm *sure* that would be some kind of health hazard, and we wouldn't want that, you powerful work enforcement types, so don't you worry. Or come looking for her. Anyway, our imaginary rabbit spends most of her daytime life in one cubicle, but she has decided that the rest of us are WAY more interesting. As is running around the office. Enter: the prison break. A couple of boxes were no deterrent for our four-legged hopping friend. So a makeshift baby gate was constructed out of some cardboard boxes to block the entrance to her cube. For weeks we all have just high-stepped over the gate when needing to get into the cube. Until this one magical day two weeks ago... On that day I was standing outside the cubicle talking to its actual (human) resident. I went to step over the 'gate' to show her something and caught the front of my sandal on the flap of one of the flattened cardboard boxes. Not only did I stumble, but I fell--big time. I'm so glad it's not on video. I tried to balance myself by waving my arms wildly, while I had one foot caught behind me on the box, and one foot in the cube. I didn't want to hit the ground and squash the bunny, nor did I want to land on my teeny tiny officemate. But eventually gravity took its toll, and I fell to the ground, on my knees. And you know how cushy and comfortable institutional carpet is--about 1/8" thick over solid concrete. I don't know how I looked exactly, but it can't have been pretty. My knees hit the ground so.hard. that people came running from other cubes. I skinned up both knees, and got ginormous bruises on each one. I also sprained the ankle that was caught on the box--my bad ankle, of course. The bunny and my officemate were just fine, though, lest you should worry! It was really embarrassing, and quite painful, but it was one of those things where after it happened I was sitting on the ground in my officemate's cube laughing and laughing. Other co-workers came in and told their stories about falling to make me feel better. Which I appreciated! ******* And as a little bonus for you, a conversation with another co-worker today: She was on the phone with a vendor and suddenly shouted out, "OWWW!" Then she said, "Um, I stubbed my toe." When she got off the phone a couple minutes later I was laughing. I asked her how she supposedly stubbed her toe while sitting at her desk. She explained that the rabbit had bitten her toe, but she didn't want to tell the vendor that. Needless to say, we were all laughing at that one. And in that laughter, there was a tinge of irony, because it is so true. :) Friday, June 01, 2007 4 comments
Freaky Fridays -- and 100% more knitting content
Whew, just making it in under the wire here with the latest installment. I apologize for the relative blog silence, but short weeks really present a challenge at work since the clients still expect us to produce the same amount of work as in a regular-length week. I also developed a killer migraine yesterday that had (has) me down pretty badly. I came into work late today as a result. But! On with the storytelling. This one is short, so I'll also be including some actual! knitting! content! with this post. The first time I sprained my wrist was pretty typical. I was in a car accident, and I did precisely what you are told not to do--just before impact I tightened my grip on the wheel. I was pretty lucky that I only sprained my wrist, but that's another story entirely. The second time, though, even *I* was laughing. Through my pain. The Boy and I were standing in the kitchen talking. I think he was doing the dishes, and I was just standing next to the table, leaning negligently. Then I (stupidly) decided to stretch my arms out, first out in front of me, and then up over my head. And right into the blades of the ceiling fan. Fear not, no limbs were lost and no blood was shed. The fan was on low. And it has those great big paddles, anyway, so all it did was stutter a bit, whacking my left wrist back and forth a couple of times until the shock dissipated a bit and my brain registered that my hand was in the fan. Wrist to Brain: Ow! Quit it! So when the pain didn't go away in a couple of days I called the doctor. And while in my appointment, when I told him how it happened, he just stared at me. I blinked first. Finally (and clearly trying not to laugh) he told me that that was an excuse he'd never heard--and he'd heard some good ones. (I wish he'd shared some of those so I wouldn't have felt like such a freak!) So there you go. An injury as only Stephanie can do.* *************************************** Blocking my ISE4 pal's scarf  I was about to take the picture of the full length blocking when Inari wandered in. Inari: Mmmm, alpaca is lip-smackingly good!  Here The Boy is helping me measure the full length of the scarf--my sore ankle was protesting all the time crawling around on the floor. Erm, sorry about the cat lying on the scarf ISE4 pal! I swear this was washed before blocking!  A pretty true representation of colors, and a closer picture of the lace pattern--it shows well on the purple alphabet block.  And even closer, because I love how it turned out! And a few non-knitting pictures, because they're cute.  To Max's way of thinking alpaca=catnip. Alpaca yarn is the one yarn that I have to worry about him stealing from me. It's the one yarn that drives him senseless. He kept trying to steal away with the last little bit while I was weaving the ends of the scarf in, so when it was all done, I gave him the rest of the ball.  Alpaca goooooooood And a last picture that just yelled SPRING to me  I saw the Bouganvillea coming back, and the Morning Glories popping and I couldn't resist. I'm no Cara or anything, but I'm pretty proud of how this picture came out. I have a clunky digital camera, and I'm a rubbish photographer, but this is such a pretty scene, that I guess I couldn't ruin it too much! Also, as I was uploading all the pics into flickr, I noticed how well the flowers in that picture match the scarf. I love when synchronicity sneaks up on you like that! *BTW--I think I sprained my ankle again this week. Probably just a minor sprain, but I think you'll enjoy the story. Evidently, starting this little blog 'tradition' of telling the world how I hurt myself may be bad for my health, because I've had a few falls and several injuries in the last two weeks! |
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