Yarn Dreams

Even though they fall into the realm of “ridiculously unhealthy” and possibly “sugar overload”.

Deep Fried Cupcake

If you’ve been around this blog for a while, you may recall that my Mom and I go to Stitches Midwest together every year. It’s a combination girl’s weekend/last hurrah before school starts. (Except I’m the only one who has to go back to work now that she’s retired, lucky lady.) It is held in Schaumburg, IL at a very nice hotel and convention center. They have an impressive lobby with multiple seating areas, water falls, and fire places. It is so nice to sit down there and knit with a few dozen like minded people, in such a fancy setting. Almost makes you forget reality…
(Which for me was the check engine light coming on during my drive to work.)

Mom in the lobby.

Since I have a major backlog of knitting projects, and since I am trying to simplify and “destash” (ha!), I only bought a few things this year. And honestly, Mom bought most of it for me. I tried to pay for a few things but she wouldn’t let me – thanks mom, I appreciate it so much!

I’ve learned not to buy yarn unless I have a specific project in mind. That’s the yarn that never gets used; yarn that sits making me feel guilty until I destash it, so I always go prepared with a list of pattern options with yarn requirements.

I chose yarn for two vests and one sweater, and all of the yarn was purchased at WEBS. We were joking that instead of going to Stitches every year, we should just make the trek to WEBS since that’s the main place we buy from.

The first yarn I picked was Noro Maiko, for a vest. This yarn is such an amazing emerald green. I’m not usually drawn to green but the depth of color in this yarn was just too much to pass up.

The second vest was actually not something I had picked in advance, but a sample that WEBS had displayed from the new Mission Falls book. I loved it, but decided it was something I would like to wear to work and a $80 hand wash cabled wool vest does not mesh well with my work environment. I looked around the booth and found this Remix yarn from Berroco. 100% recycled fibers (nylon, cotton, acrylic, silk, linen), machine washable, very soft, plus they had a sample of a child’s cabled sweater knit up and I was impressed at how much the cabled popped.

As for the sweater yarn, well, it is not something I ever imagined I would own. Thanks to WEBS great discount and my wonderful mother who insisted I must have it, I am now the proud owner of a sweater’s worth of Noro Cash Iorha.

Now I just need to learn to knit faster. Or perhaps find more hours in the day.

This summer has been an usual one for me. Circumstances have uprooted my schedule and plans, leaving me with a feeling of missing time. Almost a month to be exact.

Part of the issue is the weather. Last summer was almost chilly every single evening. This year it had been a hot, humid sauna with lots of thunderstorms thrown in for good measure. And the mosquitoes. Oh boy, do we have mosquitoes – so bad they actually forced us to abandon a camping trip. Because that vague fog you see in the distance? It’s not just a light effect of the sun going down or the heat radiating off the ground. It’s a swarm of bugs.

One thing this weather has been good for is my garden. My vine plants have taken off like crazy and my naive certainty that I could keep the pumpkins reigned into our small garden space just seems funny now. I’ve had to pull them back from the neighbors side of the fence a few times and try to train them along the edge of the grass. They have grabbed onto everything including the tomatoes, other vines, and themselves.

I picked a cantaloupe this morning:

delicious!

There is a good sized sugar baby watermelon going (along with a bunch of smaller ones):

And yellow squash!

The only thing that really hasn’t done well is the cucumbers. This may be due to the new location I moved them to, or my laziness is tying them to the trellis on a regular basis.

Tomatoes, peppers, onions, and even strawberries have been great. I’ve got this tomato plant balancing itself over the grass:

and these little ones which popped up unexpectedly sometime in July. They’ve even got little tomatoes.

I really can’t wait until I have a bigger space for all this. I hard to tell anything apart in the massive tangle of vines. (And weeds… but let’s just ignore those for now.)

Just a quick post on the state of my stash, before I write about the goodies from the Midwest Fiber Fair. (Ah, the irony.)

My stash closet has reached capacity, and now the bifold doors won’t open unless I hold back the gigantic IKEA bags of yarn and fiber to get them out of the way.

So I’ve weeded through and put almost everything I don’t have a plan for up for sale on my Ravelry destash page. Go check it out! If you are not on Ravelry go sign up let me know and I”ll post the list here as well.

There is a lot of good stuff – sock yarn, sweater quantities, Rowan, Debbie Bliss, etc. Feel free to make an offer as well.

Thanks for your help de-cluttering my life.

First, for those who got in touch with me over the loss of my Omi either here on the blog, in email, or on Ravelry, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Even such a small thing means a lot, and reassures me that she will not be forgotten.

One of the hardest parts of losing someone is the feeling of numbness and disbelief. Walking around shell shocked and, at least for me, stuck in your own head. The world can’t see what you are going through or how much you are hurting and you can’t comprehend how people can just go about their lives like nothing has happened. Wandering around Target in a fog to pick up a few essentials last week, people kept getting in my way (looking back, I was more than likely getting in their way), talking and laughing loudly all around me. I had to repress the urge to say “Look! My Grandma just died. Can’t we all just get our toothpaste or DVDs and go home?”.

But I am doing my better now both mentally and physically. My monstrous cold/mystery bug was almost gone but then took a turn into a nasty ear infection. I’m on a huge dose of antibiotics to get it under control (I’ll spare you the TMI description…). I’m a little concerned since my ears are ringing louder than usual (tinnitus) which I hope is only temporary. I’ve had to keep one earbud from my iPod in at work when it is quiet and at night in bed just to cut the noise. I think that must be the true definition of “the silence is deafening”!

I haven’t knit a stitch since July 17th. I am itching to pick it up again and find where I left off.

No photos yet, as my camera has been misplaced. It’s probably in one of my dozen tote bags.

Today is July 31, 2010. My 30th birthday is tomorrow. My Mom’s (not 30th) birthday was Thursday.

I’ve been fighting a monstrous cold all week, even staying home from work a day and a half because I couldn’t cough and breathe at the same time. You can pick up some super germs in a hospital, especially when not getting proper sleep or nutrition. (Did you know you can make a meal out of a Dunkin Donuts coffee and a can of Red Bull? Multiple times?)

A week ago today, we buried my Grandma. Omi. My Omi, who I never called Omi in front of my friends when I was a kid since it always seemed too difficult to explain that Omi is german for grandma.

Three days earlier, on Wednesday the 21st, we got a call on my Mom’s cell phone at 2:15am that she was gone. We had been home and asleep for about four hours. She had been home for less than 12 hours.

Four days earlier, Tuesday the 20th, was a coordinated effort by my mom’s entire family – all eight of us – and a few wonderful hospice nurses and EMTs to get her home in time. After thinking it wouldn’t happen, she made it and woke up enough to realize where she was. She tried to say my name, and mouthed “I love you” when I repeated over and over that I loved her and I would miss her. (I hope I didn’t make her sad.) It was all I could do to leave her side and get some sleep.

Three days earlier. Monday. Everything is so surreal. We keep hitting the extremes of emotions when Omi wakes up to eat or talk to us, and then falls back asleep and struggles to breathe. Her doctor recommends hospice. We are devastated, but agree it is the only reasonable course of action. I am so excited with every small thing she does, as if it will really make a difference at this point. She lets me feed her a half a cup of chicken broth and a few bites of Jello. It was the most liquid she had in over 24 hours. I buy her a yellow carnation in the hospital gift shop. When I go to show it to her, she opens her eyes and says “it’s pretty”. I put it on the windowsill of her hospital room, and then carefully move it everywhere she goes for the next few days. I consider putting it in her casket, but am not sure I want to part with it. She is moved up to the hospice floor in the afternoon. Sitting in the family meeting room with a hospice Chaplin I think once again “What in the world am I doing here?”. Talked with my very awesome and understanding boss, and was told everything there would be taken care of for the week and not to worry about it. Stopped at Target by my parents house to buy underwear, socks, and a few t-shirts.

Five days earlier, Sunday July 18th. I am taking a class on hand carding fibers at the Midwest Folk Art and Fiber Fair. It moved to the Lake County Fairgrounds this year, which is only 15 minutes from my house. How convenient! It finishes at 12:30, and I am looking forward to walking around the booths and picking up a few things I saw while browsing the day before. I check my phone, which I had heard beeping the text messages while in class, and see a note from my husband that says “call me as soon as you are finished”. Mom had called him and said to get down to the hospital ASAP. I had him pack a change of clothes for me just in case, but I don’t really plan on missing work Monday.

Thursday, July 15th. Spoke with my Mom on the phone. Omi is in the hospital after a spell of anger and confusion related to her (apparently worsening) dementia. They give her some prescriptions that seem to help and plan on sending her home soon. Mom doesn’t seem overly concerned so I don’t give it too much extra worry.

*****
I always lived close to my grandparents (Omi and Papa) growing up. For many years, I was at their house every single day. Even as I got older it was unusual to go more than a week without seeing them. This was completely normal to me – I never understand how kids at school didn’t see their grandparents often.

So many of the things I love are things Omi loved and included me in. Cooking, baking, gardening, sewing, knitting, reading… I am so thankful to have those memories with her. I am so very very thankful that I was able to be with her during her last few days and make sure she knew how much I love her. It helps to override the thoughts of I should have called more, I should have visited more.

My head is starting to clear a little and I am becoming more able to live in reality. Or at least some sort of alternate reality where I occasionally wake up and remember that she is gone. I do have some goodies I bought at the Fiber Fair, which I want to photograph and write a little about.

Finally, I hope this isn’t too depressing or morbid a post. I needed to get it out of my brain while still preserving the memories for a time when I might be able to better process them.

A few weeks ago, my Mom came up to spend the day with me while my Dad was at a Harley-Davidson motorcycle repair/maintenance/care/something(?) class in Milwaukee.

We drove out to The Fold – an amazing yarn shop in Marengo, IL. This is the shop I bought my spinning wheel from in January of last year. I needed a set of hand carders for a class I am taking at the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair and well, we both needed yarn. Of course. Lucky for us, that Saturday happened to fall during their summer solstice sale, and everything in the store was 25% off.

Here is what I left with:

The small pile above shows how much restraint I had. They have literally walls of fiber for sale by the pound and shelves that look like library stacks of yarn.

Below is a close up of my new Schacht carders. I tried them out with a little bit of fiber and made what I can only call a rat’s nest. Guess that class is a good investment!

We had a great little celebration last Sunday for Independence Day. For the first time in a week the skies were clear and the temperature was below boiling.

We had a BBQ picnic in my parents backyard, played outdoor games (ladderball, washers, football) until the sun went down, and then set off some (legal) fireworks. So much fun – except for being eaten alive by mosquitoes while trying to light fuses.

I was wearing sandals and have at least a dozen bites on each ankle. Every time I take a step now my shoes rub against them setting off the itch. Errrrg.

I haven’t done much knitting since I finished my mittens a few weeks ago. What I have managed to do it royally f-up my sleep schedule (again). I thought I had it straightened out but when we didn’t get home from my parents until 2am on the 5th I was back to square one. I was too wound up to sleep when we got home and only managed about 3 hours that night. I was of course tired during the day on Monday and decided to sleep as much as I felt like to “catch up”.

Big mistake. Now I am stuck on a partially nocturnal schedule (again). Wide awake at night and exhausted during the day. I am trying so hard to keep myself going and awake after work but end up falling asleep on the couch because I am just. so. tried. And then of course, not tired enough to sleep at night.

As I’ve alluded to, this is about the 4th or 5th time I’ve done this to myself in 2010 alone. I’ve tried not napping during the day, setting alarms so I don’t nap more than 20 minutes, loading up on caffeine, avoiding caffeine, strict bedtime routines, warm and cool showers, warm milk, white noise…

Does anyone have any advice? Something else to try? The frustrating thing about insomnia is that the advice you usually get is “just close your eyes and fall asleep”. That’s like trying to cure chronic depression by “smiling more”. Believe me, neither works.

Huh. What a downer post this turned into! Here is a cat collage to try and salvage it, while maybe inducing some sleepy feelings.

We had a nice, low key anniversary celebration yesterday. Originally we had planned on camping for the weekend at nearby Chain O’ Lakes State Park. The weather has been terrible around here lately and the Fox River, which feeds the lake, is at flood stage. We were watching the hourly forecasts obsessively for the past few days and decided late Friday night that it probably not the best idea to go. There was an 80% chance of thunderstorms with some severe predicted for Saturday. (It is worth mentioning that the last time we camped at Chain O’ Lakes we had to evacuate when a tornado tore through the south end of the park.)

I am fairly angry to report that the weather was beautiful Saturday with no rain to be seen. I am trying to convince myself that the severe storms still took place 30 minutes away from our blue sky.

Our little party turned out to be just as fun as camping and was very ‘us’. We had hot dogs with corn on the cob for dinner, played a stack of board and card games, watched Star Trek, and had yummy desert and beverages.

A few of the games were Ticket to Ride:

(Which I highly recommend.)

and Monopoly Deal, which is an addictive and quick Monopoly-based card game that has all the fun of the original Monopoly without the tediousness of a three hour game.

I made a special super sweet and unhealthy desert – S’mores Brownies in honor of the missed camping trip.

The recipe is from Picky Palate and definitely worth a try if you love gooey s’mores or ridiculously sweet deserts (there are four full size Hershey Bars in that 8×8″ pan). I did have a little trouble telling if they were done with the melted marshmallows on top, and ended up over baking them slightly. But no worries as they are still delicious.

Five years ago today, Steve and I were married. I really don’t feel like five years sounds long enough – in a good way. We have been together since November 2001; 8 years, 7.5 months.

I wanted to find a photo for every year we have been together, but some of them are in a box at the bottom of my craft closet. I will eventually pull them out and add them to my little slideshow, but right now it would create a big mess that I don’t feel like dealing with!

Top Row (from left): 2002 – Easter. 2003 – my graduation from The University of Iowa (Steve graduated the year before. It took me five years, but I have two degrees). 2005 – our wedding.

Middle Row: 2005 – honeymoon. 2005 – honeymoon. 2006 – downtown after we moved back to Chicagoland.

Bottom Row: 2008 – camping. 2007 – Hawkeye Football game at Soldier Field. 2010 – five years.

Here’s to many, many more.