Hockeymom Knits

Tomorrow

Friday, July 23rd, 2010 | Family | 3 Comments

Hi! Been a while! Seems the blog is the one to suffer for lack of time, patience or energy lately.  I can only try to do better - seems some days are better spent attending to family and friends.

Tomorrow, Spawn #1 is going to have surgery - a surgery to correct an underbite he inherited from me. It’s been a long journey for him and us all - 11 years in the making. After this, his braces will remain on for maybe 9-12 more months and then he’s done. Thinking about who he was when this started and who he is now, it’s good that there’s that time built in. It’s time he needed to finish growing, maturing and now, he’s ready.

So, by this time tomorrow, he’ll be out of surgery and sleeping. We will have him home Sunday and the recuperation begins. 6 weeks of liquid and soft diets which will include lots of ice cream. Ice cream is a necessary item when you’re under the weather. It makes it all better. Or at least more tolerable.

I’ll have a sock with me, and probably a slightly more difficult project if my mind becomes too crazy and needs settling down. Neither spawn have ever been in the hospital before. New territory for us all.

If you have it in you, please think good thoughts and I’ll see you on the other side.

Thanks!

Bug in a Bag

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 | Angst, Family, Knitting, Marriage | 3 Comments

Well, it’s amazing how quickly times goes. Seems this blog is going to bear the brunt of my lack of time management skills.

So much has been going on. Spawn #2 has graduated from high school, went to Stitches, our friend, Andrew “Myagi” Mavor came to stay with us and rocked our graduation party, and I’ve been occupying myself with kicking and stomping on things.

On Sunday evening, I saw a bug on the floor - a palmetto bug. Go ahead and look. We’ve had to have some repair work done on the house along with some painting, so we have all sorts of things coming inside to visit. It was on it’s back and not moving, but the minute I scooped it up in an empty dogfood bag, it started to skitter, so I shook the bag and dropped it on the floor and stomped on it. I stomped on a bag on a concrete floor. Let that sink in. It hurt so bad, I thought I had broken it. I gimped around on Monday, Memorial Day, while our lovely friends were there and then Tuesday hockeydad took me to the emergency room. Here’s how we wait in emergency rooms:

Turns out, I didn’t break it, but I did bruise the bone and we discovered I have a heel spur. I sound like a wimp, but let me tell ya, this hurts. A. Lot.

The sock is being knit from Zauberball Crazy Sock and let me tell ya, I love the colors and hd loves the sock, but it’s not very consistently plied. I’m on the cuff now and should be able to start the second one this weekend.

There is one thing I want to say. If you are in Atlanta or a suburb thereof and ever hurt yourself or need emergency care - go to Northside. They rocked it like nothing I’ve ever seen. 2 hours start to finish and that included x-rays. And a cool shoe and pain meds.

I have other things to share, but I think this is enough for now. Don’t you agree?

Throw down

Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | Family, Knitting | 3 Comments

Hello. I’m back. Will try to remember to blog. Rilly.

Last Sunday, I took a finished sock over to my Mom and Dad’s place for her to try on before I cast on the 2nd. I wanted to make sure the first one fit so I wouldn’t have to frog back two socks, y’know?Here’s sock #1. Fits her perfectly.

My mom threw it down - she challenged me to get the 2nd one done by Thanksgiving. It is Thursday, and I’m a little over halfway up the foot. One week to go. Here I am on sock #2:

I can do this! Right? RIGHT? Heh. Advil and ice packs are ready - damn the torpedoes I’m going for broke!

Saturdays are for Spinning

Saturday, October 10th, 2009 | Baby Kaylyn, Family, Friends, Spinning | No Comments

And cleaning, laundry and coffee drinking! Been a whole week since I posted! Eep. Been a busy week.

Our anniversary was wonderful, felt nice to get away and see our beautiful mountains. Wednesday night we were in the quarter-finals for our dart league. We didn’t win but we did put up a good fight. I actually won 2 of my 3 matches. Next season will be even better! We also went to see “Zombieland” on Thursday with friends, tapas and drinks last night with friends and tonight is dinner and “Couples Retreat” with friends. Haven’t seen friends in so long, it feels good to get out and hang again.

On Friday my nephew is getting married! Woo hoo! His intended is a wonderful young lady and we’re so excited to have her as part of the family. She fits right in - my family tends to overwhelm people cuz we’re so many and so loud, but she’s held her own since day 1. I see good times a-coming.

Weekend after next is SAFF and I’m hopped up like a kid on a sugar rush! Will be so good to see friends I haven’t seen since last year (or even the year before that - I’m looking at you Elizabeth). We’re going to be at the Awesomest Cabin on the Lake of Beauty and I promise there will be pictures of the spinning, knitting, eating, festivaling and debauchery (heh)!

Here’s the spinning (Abby Franquemont batt “Jungle Love”). It is by far one of the best prepped batts I’ve ever spun and I hope to be able to score more in the future. Her fibers go fast and furious. I scored mine from The Spinning Loft and if you ever need something, Beth and her crew will take care of you right! Super customer service.

And, because she’s just the sweetest, awesomest baby around, here’s BabyK:

Sleep - the final frontier

Friday, September 4th, 2009 | Family, Knitting, Spinning | No Comments

Just said that because Dragon Con is in town. Heh. Work is kicking my butt and I’m not doing much at night but I did get a little spinning done last night while we watched “Planet Earth” with #2. I’m spinning cashmere on my downstairs-tv tahkli:

And on my upstairs tahkli I’m spinning a cotton/wool blend:

And, I have done a little bit of knitting on my Forest Canopy shawl. On the second ball of my handspun singles and still loving how it looks:

This weekend is sleep catch-up time. Oh boy.

Hope y’all have a great weekend!

It’s my birthday, my b-b-b-b-birthday

Monday, August 3rd, 2009 | Family, Friends, Knitting | 6 Comments

Whew! Day 3 of my birthday vacation week and I’m already worn out! Bob, Bruce, our son Jordan and I took a short trip up to Charlotte to see The Crystal Method at Amos’ Southend and had a blast. They treated us to dinner at Mac’s Speed Shop and it was awesome. Check out some of the pics from last night on the Fan Site. Bob, Bruce and Jordan did a great job getting some photos and video of the show. I danced. My dad said it was cool how I would wake up this morning in the same town I was born in 49 years ago. Just seemed right.

Here’s a couple of pics of car knitting (this is a knitting blog, right?). Here’s the Sunflower doll dressed. I didn’t want to show a nakey baby doll:

And my Forest Canopy using my handspun singles. I’m liking how it looks like denim. I have so much of the pencil roving left I bought at SAFF I can probably make a scarf and hat or fingerless mitts out of what’s left.

Tonight, HD is grilling some steaks for my birthday dinner and we’re going to hang out at home with my boys. This is the best way to start a birthday week!

Happy Birthday Stymie

Monday, July 13th, 2009 | Family | 2 Comments

Today would have been my brother-in-law’s 52 birthday. I hope that there’s a time when I can think of him and the pain of his going isn’t so bright and hard. He was a wonderful husband and father, and as a brother-in-law, I couldn’t have asked for a better person. He adored my sister and would have done anything he could to make her happy. He had a quirky sense of humor and was a top-rate prankster.

I miss you Stymie. Save me a spot on the compound.

Tour de Fleece - Day 2

Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | Baby Kaylyn, Family, Friends, Spinning, Tour de Fleece | No Comments

Okay, so yesterday was day one. I did do some spinning, but not much. We had family and friends over for a “get together” plus little baby K came to visit too. That child is the bomb diggity - just gotta say it.  Here she is with my mom:

Today, our friends hung out with us and I was able to get some more spinning in. I’m not spinning my challenge yet, which is to spin up 4# of Shetland/Alpaca/Corriedale blend for a sweater for HD, but I did spin 2.4 ounces/230 yards of a superwash merino batt from Miss Babs. Keeping it as a single. Probably make a nice scarf or hat and fingerless mitts from it. Some seriously sweet stuff. Here’s my set up with the Miss Babs still on it. Notice the important stuff is all there - wheel, wool, cup holder and pina colada. Why go anywhere else when it’s all Right. There.

I should be able to start the final blending tomorrow and maybe even get some spinning in.

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July, an excellent Canada Day and a great weekend!

Big Doin’s Around Here

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 | Baby Kaylyn, Family | No Comments

Tonight my niece is lying in a hospital bed, they’ve done certain “things” to help her along, and in the morning they will induce labor if she hasn’t started on her own. Bless her, she has gained 5 pounds in fluid since Friday and they don’t want to wait any longer.

I’m beyond excited to welcome this little baby into the world. I’m beyond sad that my brother-in-law didn’t live to meet her and have time with her, but we will make sure she knows how much she was loved by him.  Next time you see  a post, there will be pics of my great-niece Kaylyn and you better believe there will be one of her holding needles and a spindle.

It’s my duty.

If I don’t blog, does anyone hear?

Monday, June 22nd, 2009 | Angst, Family, General, Knitting, Spinning | 4 Comments

Sheesh. Been a few days since I’ve put fingers to keyboard, eh? When things get all angsty, it seems the blog is the first to go, followed by my knitting and housework. I don’t mind about the housework, but I’ve just not felt much like getting any knitting accomplished which makes me even more sad, and then nothing gets done. I did get Tomato finished - here’s the crappy shot taken in the bathroom at work:

I’m happy with it, it looks good on me. A success! I’ll continue to work bits and pieces of my Forest Canopy and the little Sunflower/Ladybug dolls out of The Twist Collective for Kaylyn but just not driven to finish them any time soon.  Ennui - it’s just not for breakfast.

I am spinning, a little bit. On bobbin #4 of the lovely roving from Knit Witch, so it’s not all bad. In order to “rev up the excitement” I’ve joined the 2009 Tour de Fleece challenge. My goal  is to get all the yarn spun up for HockeyDad’s Cobblestone. Then, come mid-August, I’ll see if I can cast that bad boy on to the needles! In order to do that however, I must finish blending the alpaca, shetland and corriedale waiting patiently for me! Think I can do it? I mean, really. It’s what - two weeks away from starting? Hmmm?  Am I crazy? Maybe.’Specially since I’ve tweaked the wrist I broke last summer.

Plus, we’re now on baby watch ‘09. Little Kaylyn is to make her debut by the end of the month (lord, please - her mama is getting uncomfortable), and I’m going to be there to witness, help, cheer on and take videos of her entrance into the world. I’m so excited and I know my sister is. This will give her something to focus on and look forward to! She loves the babies and since this is her first grandchild it’s all the better!