I did the required 12 rows of Shirley Shrugs last night and it wasn’t so bad.  The little voice says, "Why knit something if you don’t love it?"  The other little voice says, "It’s for your mother; she’s done plenty of things for you over the years that she didn’t really want to do."

That other little voice kind of puts me in my place.

I did not pull out the second Log Cabin Sock, but I did work a bit on Weasley.  Woo!

DH & Maddy brought the Christmas tree up from the basement.  I noticed a string of lights marked with bits of masking tape — must have flagged it last year as needing to be replaced.  Heh.  That string is glowing brightly, wouldn’t you know, but there’s a HUGE chunk at the top of the tree and some spots near the bottom that are dark, dark, dark.  Ugh.

Today, I’m going to learn a little bit about my credit union’s online bill pay service.  I’ve paid plenty of bills online before, but never in this way.  My most recent bill from MCI came with a notice that they’ll start to charge me a fee to send me an invoice unless I register for e-billing.  I’m old-fashioned — I like to hold the actual bill in my hand, to write the actual check, and stick the actual stamp.  I’ve got to get with it.  My mother (let’s just say not so computer savvy) will be happy to hear it — she’s been doing it for quite a while!

Y’all had eyeballs popping out of your heads yesterday at the number of Bloglines (or Fucklines, depending on who you are and maybe the day) subscriptions in my list.  You know, I make it a point to subscribe to the feeds of people who make themselves known to me in one way or another — by linking or commenting or emailing or throwing a dart at my Frappr map.  When you click on my list of feeds, all you see is the gigantic list.  When I click, I see it with highlights — you know, 384 subscriptions, but only a fraction of those have new posts, and they’re broken down into smaller (but not yet bite-size) pieces.  I haven’t been using my new system for very long, but I am SO happy with it — the blog reading is so much more manageable.    I’ve actually been caught up with blogs a couple of times this week!

Geez, remember?  Back in the day — a year ago — when we blindly clicked on our link lists not knowing whether anyone had posted anything new.  And the learning curve — figuring out who was who and who posted when and how often — Bloglines is SUCH a time-saver that way.  I will freely admit that I don’t read every single word of every single blog every single time — just can’t do it — nor do I actually open every single blog every single time, but I’d rather skim them than ignore them altogether.

Just last night, I was reading Jen’s post about Christmas Stockings and her desire to knit one for X by Christmas.  Then I clicked on "Knit Blogs UVWXYZ" and saw a post on Zip-a-dee-doo-dah Day about Christmas stockings — and a Stocking Along!  Did you know there was a Stocking Along?  I didn’t, and I don’t think Jen did.  I was so happy to share that with Jen and hopefully she’ll find a pattern or maybe just some inspiration and support.  That’s the kind of stuff I love about blogging and why I like to read and/or skim lots of different blogs.

I’m kind of mad — okay, I’m pissed — because there are supposed to be pictures in thist post, but the email I sent from home this morning with files attached is still floating ’round cyberspace at this hour.  You should be seeing a finished Log Cabin Sock and a little progress on both Shirley Shrugs and Weasley.  No need to adjust the dials or clean your glasses, they’re just not here.  Harumph.

KNITTING

I love the Log Cabin Sock — kitchenered (only eight stitches) the toe last night and it’s gorgeous!  I can’t wait to make more.  I’d cast on for the second a few days ago and finally worked the ribbing last night before pulling out Mom’s shrug

I don’t love Shirley Shrugs.  I should say I don’t love the yarn I’m using, but Mom picked it out and I really love how it looks, it’s just not fun to work.  I’m at the stage where I’m starting to play games — last night, it was math:  how many rows left to do divided by how many days to do them equals at least 12 rows a day.  (Coming attractions:  What if it was a birthday present (end of January)?  Would Ladies’ Log Cabin Socks cut the mustard for Christmas?  How many days before do-or-die decision time?)  Dang, I used to love working with cotton, but I think I’ve become a wool pig.  I’ve thought of doing it in something else, but darn it, she picked it, so I’m dreaming of doing it again in wool — for myself.

I love Weasley!  Worked only a few rows on the second sleeve — this is my reward knitting.  I really want to work on it all the time, at any given time, but must keep nose to Shirley grindstone.

BLOGGING

I love Bloglines.  Sometimes it’s techno-crap, too, like when it’s HOURS and HOURS between the actual posting and showing up in the list as having posted, but I can usually techno-tolerate it.  My name is Vicki and I have a Bloglines subscription addiction — about which I really have no apologies.  There are so many talented, inspiring, creative, and funny people out there, I want them all!  And there are new baby blogs born and waiting to be discovered everyday!

The problem is that even with eleventy-bazillion-and-six unread posts waiting, I’d still read my "go to" blogs first — that might be considered clique-y, but there are bloggers with whom, for whatever reason, I feel a connection or a level of comfort or share an interest and/or they post everyday — WHATEVER — but there’d still be a LOT of unread posts at the end of the day.

Several weeks ago, I divided my subscriptions into three different folders — one for blog-related stuff, one for knitting blogs, and one for mostly not knitting (aka, general interest).  That didn’t really help, since 99.99999% of the blogs I read are knitting blogs.  I did make a separate folder, then, for bloggers I’ve met and that helped a little bit.  I remembered a short-lived experiment with reading blogs in alphabetical order, kind of, by day of the week.  A-E on Monday, F-J on Tuesday, etc.  That didn’t really work very well, either, but I thought I’d apply it to my knit blog list and I like it!  I really like it!!!  I blew away several thousand unread posts in order to do it, and I haven’t gone on vacation or anything like that, but I feel like I’m keeping in the loop a little better, even with folks who post infrequently.  For the most part, I don’t even click to expand those folders, just click on the folder heading and read with a "come what may" attitude.  My ever-changing, always growing (there’s that addiction thing) list is always available from the right sidebar under "Blog Links" or click on the link above.

I had a little flood of remembrance the other day when Alison queried her readers about a "new" craft she’d discovered.  Then new mom Stephanie (hey, go wish her a Happy Birthday!) wrote about the challenge of just finding time, with a new baby in the house, to work some string with a couple of sticks.  And I was transported back about 14 years…

When Maddy was born, knowing she’d be my last and with Katie in first grade and Ali in preschool, I decided to be a full time mom.  I figured it was a now-or-never.  I had put in a full day working and/or going to school since I was 14, so coming to a full stop and making such a big change at age 33 meant there was a period of adjustment.

Y’all know that I love my children to pieces and I wish they hadn’t grown up so fast, and yet there were times when they were little that I wondered what kind of nightmare prison sentence I’d signed up for!  Would I ever have a minute to myself again?  Would I ever get enough sleep?  An uninterrupted conversation with another adult?

One of the things I did for my sanity during this adjustment to my new life (one that I did eventually get used to and enjoy for five years) was join the "Hobby & Craft Club" — a group of women that met every Thursday morning for two hours in the community room at City Hall.  Secretly, and among friends, I called it "The Old Lady Club" because that’s what they all were!  I could easily have been the granddaughter of any one of them, and perhaps even the great-granddaughter of a few.  Those ladies did a lot of crafting for charity — church and hospital and nursing home craft sales — and they worked a LOT of plastic canvas!  It’s easy on the eyes, you know — big holes, big needles, big yarn!  And it was both quick and cheap.  Praying hands, American flags, and crosses were all favorite designs, prolifically produced, all with magnets so they could hold up the grocery list on the ‘fridge.  Another favorite was crochet afghans in scorch-the-eyes color combos and big, BIG hooks.

I listened to the little old ladies talk (and gossip) and laugh while I worked my counted cross-stitch samplers on 32-count linen — in extremely poor light.  I think they looked on me like a little pet — they weren’t quite sure what to do with me, but I behaved and didn’t make a mess, so was tolerated and even humored now and then.  It was two hours every week that I could put my head down and work, uninterrupted and without any pressure from anyone about anything (and no phone), and it sure did help.

There are some new, or soon-to-be-new moms out there — Stephanie, Jen, Kate, my little sister.  ; )  It’s the most wonderful thing in the world, but it’s a huge shift in your life and priorities — no matter how much you read and prepare and think about it or how much advice you get, you can just never plan for all the ways it will affect you.  So, in the realm of advice that may or may not help:  I never felt too guilty about sitting down to stitch while the kids napped, either.  (Or taking a nap while they did and staying up after their bedtime to stitch.)  Sanity or a clean house?  It wasn’t a tough decision (I knew I’d have regular cleaning jags to take care of the dust bunnies).  The Number 1 thing is:  take care of you so you can take care of your family.  It might take some time and experimentation to find what works best for you, but that’s okay, too.

Here’s a wide view of my chart for Shirley Shrugs.  I forgot to flip the pic — Row 1 is at the right, the middle is indicated by an orange-ish line, and the shaded triangles are where the short-row shaping will occur to make "shoulders" and hopefully keep the shrug more snug around the neck.  I am fully prepared to be making lots of fudge when I get to those areas…  I really only need a small fraction of that chart, but I don’t see my love for copy & paste ever diminishing (and you get a nice overview this way, too).

Have a great weekend everyone!  I think we’re going to my brother’s for lunch tomorrow.

I definitely feel like I’m getting better an kitchenering.  As with most repetitive tasks, if I can find the groove — the pattern and cadence — I could probably do it all day!  Oh, I’m so happy with these socks and I can’t wait to get ’em off in the mail.  Thanks, Mim, for a great pattern (link on her sidebar, along with other great patterns to try!); I’ll definitely be making more of these!

So, I think I’ve responded to all the birthday emails and comments — if I missed one, it’s not because I didn’t appreciate your good wishes!  Thank you!!  There’s a comment conundrum ’round here.  I love ’em, I even turn on the red light occasionally, but I’m not always very good about responding.  Time shortage, more than anything; choices have to be made, something falls by the wayside.  Poo.  I’ve heard of people getting paid to blog — it’s Big Business! — but don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone getting paid to blog about knitting.  I’m first in that line, okay?

I had a wonderful assortment of birthday cards — nearly half had picture of old ladies on them.  Norma sent the one with the "coven," along with some witch’s brew and that adorable pepper shaker.  She’s got me pegged!  I love it!

It’s already found a home among the treasures.

So, on Sunday, I started off by baking my own birthday cake.  I followed that up by starting a big pot of Knitche’s Chili All Day!  It’s chili weather!!  The big finale was a double-batch of chocolate chips cookies — some to take to work as my birthday treat, some for Ali to give to a friend that shares my birthday, some to take to Mom’s with the chili and cake.  I didn’t spend much of that day in my PJs because I was out of cumin…  One of my sisters didn’t think it was right that I was doing all that work on my birthday.  The thing is, I like to cook, but haven’t done much lately and to take nearly a whole day and just whoop it up in the kitchen was really nice!  I’m going to do that more.

One more pic…  Ali gave me the 2006 Knitting calendar, and I bought Handknit Holidays for myself from Knitpicks at what I thought was a very good price.  I saw this book at Cara’s last month and decided that I had to have it.

I spent a good deal of time with Excel over the weekend, charting the shrug.  My jumping off point, as you may have gathered, was Shirley Paden’s Cabled Shrug in the Winter 2005 issue of Interweave Knits.  I kept her edge designs, but replaced both the zig-zag/bobble pattern and the center design that it flanked.  The new center is a triple-diamond repeat that I saw on a pillow in a magazine and then hunted down in a Barbara Walker book.  The zig-zag is replaced with a snaking cable from a Harmony book — I didn’t want any bobbles.

At some point over the weekend, I did a google search for Shirley Paden (and maybe the shrug) and came across a blog (neglected to note the name) that commented on the appeal of this shrug, but likely frustration when it came to the actual wearing and trying to keep the thing on your shoulders.  I’d always imagined myself (because I’d kinda like one of my own after Mom’s is finished) all snuggled up in my chair, wrapped in a big, cabley, snuggly hug of a shrug, but undoubtedly I’m going to need to run and answer the phone/door or want to make a sandwich… get out of my chair.  I concluded that perhaps some minimal shaping at each shoulder would help — some short-row kind of magic that would make a bit of a curve around the neck-ish.  This is where the arrival of Handknit Holidays in my mailbox is somewhat serendipitous because there is a cabled tree skirt that uses short rows to make it curve around the tree trunk-ish.  Yeah!  So, I’ve fiddled more with the Excel file, a calculator, printed pattern pages, a pencil and a legal pad, and now I’m ready to cast on "Shirley Shrugs" — an experimental shrug that I’m knitting for my Mom for Christmas!!  Heeeee!

If a woman is talking, driving home the point she’s trying to make that security and safety are the top concerns regarding a particular scheme — and "driving home" needs to be done because the attitude seems somewhat cavalier ("Beverly Hillbillies" comes to mind) and it doesn’t seem like she’s being heard — and she is accused of yammering and it turns out that her concerns are MORE than valid, is it still yammering?  Can one say to her, "You were yammering, but you were right."

Meanwhile, I had a pretty good birthday.  I had lovely flowers, phone calls, cards and a couple of presents; I had lots of cyber wishes and I took your advice and ate plenty of dark chocolate-frosted dark chocolate cake and bittersweet chocolate chips cookies.  I spent a lot of time in my PJs — there will be PJ talk tomorrow.

There was very, very little knitting (lots of cooking, instead!).  I learned that I cannot cast on a baby sock and pay attention to a movie — I finally got it, though, and am making progress.  I think I’m going to send the single, finished sock to Mack — I’m a little concerned about length.  If it’s good, I’ll send the second as soon as it’s finished; if it’s too short, he can send it back and I’ll tear out the toe and lengthen it.  Oh, and I made HUGE progress with "Shirley Shrugs" — my pet name for the modifications I’m making to Shirley Paden’s yummy shrug pattern.  Oh, lots to tell about that, too.