Clapotis

I just did a brief search (if by brief search one could mean 'spent hours and hours neglecting children') on the word clapotis.
My Dearest Husband of yarn procurement came home from work today and said "oh hon, I was laughing my tukkus off reading yarn harlots blog and it was so funny how she was being teased about this clap....er....clippy....clotter...... clappaloctopuss.....whatever. Have you read about that?"

Thats right, you read me right people, he was READING knitting blogs. I was miles away and I happen to know he already ordered my birthday present so he had searched her out on his very own JUST to read! Muhuwahahahahahahaaaaa. It boggles the mind to realize just how close he is to being ensnared by the yarny goodness of it all. He is going to be knitting by the end of the year, I just know it.

Of course that sent me to the Harlot site, and then naturally I googled and came up with Crazy Aunt Purl and random other knitting blogs that for the life of me I can't remember their names right now (sorry). It was hysterical. That Crazy Aunt Purl is southern siren call for misplaced knitting belles. Reading her bits and pieces of life made me think of my friends I love and miss so much, who are all still firmly planted in the only sane place left in the world. The Deep South. Now granted, it can only be considered sane by those of us that come from there. To the rest of the world we are genteel at best (that means we gots manners AND grits) and some weird unedumacated road kill eating hollywood idea of a southener at worst. I pity the sap who takes cultural information from tv and movies, I mean, good grief.
In the midst of all this my favorite obsessive knitter pinged me on the messenger harrassing me into coming back to PA for Harlots book tour. I can completely see the rip roaring fun in going, only, like 3 days later, she is going to be here in my neck of the woods. I realize Friday night shindigs tend to be abit wilder than 2 PM Sunday afternoon get ups, I just don't know if I am prepared to abandon my shorties again so soon. Last time the car I left them with literally broke down and stranded them at the store in the coldest weather of the year :-S
Now, Himself has not complained one bit about that, but my youngest 2 have hardly let me out of their sight since. I wonder if they fear for their survival if left in their beloved Dads clutches again? "Mommmmmm he took us shopping at NIGHT in the COLD and broke the CAR! and it was COLD! and you never would have done that huh mom huh? Would you? No. See, he doesn't quite know what he is doing. Yes, he is Dad, and we love him, and we know he means well, but shopping? At night? In the COLD? what if he tries to shift us outta our warm house of childish play again hmmmmm? You think about that mom? You want to go traipsing off to get strung out on string and leave us behind again so soon? Can't you see how fresh those wounds are mom?"
Or maybe thats my own mommy guilt.

Ah well, we shall see, yus?

And I did it yall. I never ever thought I would see the day, but I went and done did it. I bought yarn porn. 2 magazines as a matter of fact. Vogue and Knit1. My stomach fluttered inside that Walgreens like a mighty flock of hummingbirds on coffee. I NEVER buy magazines. Ever.
I bought 2 of them bad boys at once.
Himself is really starting to worry about me now. Books were fine. He has known all along I was a bibliophile, he knows books are likely to come home with me. He knows library cards are pretty useless as I am driven to own the words I read. So when knitting books began to arrive, he took it with quiet resolve and I do think a touch of pride in his bride. Perhaps he reasoned that it would cut into my yarn budget and I would have less projects on the needles (silly man)?
But today when I walked through that door with my 2 bottles of conditioner and TWO knitting magazines, well, I just don't think he was sure I was quite right in the head. Who was this woman, this stranger who looked just like his wife in the living room? This woman who once went on a two week tirade about magazine companies and their subversive effects on our culture and the pure and total waste of perfectly good paper and ink that could be put to better use, like say, in BOOKS? She has a vendetta against magazines that rivaled only her 17 year feud with bobbins. Now here she stands with two in her clutches, and does not even have the decency to blush.

Naturally I went straight into the bathroom, closed and locked the door and then drew a steamy bath.

Mmmmmmmmm yarn porn and bubbles, who needs the clapotis when ya got that?

Happy Birthday L

HAPPY BIRTHDAY L!!!

It may be Valentines Day to the rest of the US, but in this house its my first baby's birthday *sniff*
He is 12, can you believe it? I remember his birth VERY clearly and it amazes me it was 12 years ago. He was a colicy baby, not giving me one inch of lee way as a new mom. All my infants since him have been a breeze in comparison. Now I wonder if it wasn't just my tension at trying to get everything perfect, but not quite knowing what perfect was. I do remember telling his pediatrician about the howling, and the turkey kept telling me he had ear infections. I may have been young and over tired, but I knew he didn't have ear problems (the doctor has since had his license pulled because of over medicating children who were not sick=so glad I listened to my inner voice on that).
The day he was born, literally less than an hour after he was born, he PICKED HIS HEAD UP and looked me straight in the eye. Seriously. Strong kid from the start. Its a good thing to have a hard headed kid. If you persevere, and the good Lord enables you, strong willed kids are the ones that have the best success at standing firm in tides of complacency and immorality. I was a complacent,people pleasing kid, and would go along with the crowd cause I was too desperate to be liked to say no. Not L. The kid amazes me everyday. He is our baby whisperer with his younger siblings. Still a sloppy critter, but what kid isn't? Now, as of today, he is officially my preteen, and already looks so grown up and handsome. His personality is just as strong as it was as a demanding infant. He knows what he wants, what he likes and would be inclined to obnoxiousness about it, only he has been taught and understands that self control gets him so much further.
He plays the guitar and today he got a CryBaby wahwah pedal. It sounds like bad 70's soundtracks downstairs, but my baby is so happy and excited. A, his older step brother is getting him skid rails for his skateboard, only the skate shop was closed due to the freaking blizzard of insane winds yesterday. Tho because of insane blizzard, skateboarding is not an option today anyway LOL. So rock on little man, Mommy loves you.

And for the rest of ya, Happy Valentines Day.

Log Cabin goodness

I only regret not buying 2 skiens of each color instead of one each.
Is so soft, it warms my lap as I knit its neat rows. Its the best mindless knitting EVER and I am just tickled with its ability to remain interesting even in its no-brain-required-ness.

I went and got some cotton in assorted colors for kitchen towels and dish rags. Yeeeehaw. Can we say "getting a head start on next Christmas"?????

oh yus we can.

In-Laws will naturally get yellow and blue because they are obsessed with Sweden and anything remotely swedish "ish". It helpful nice that they both knit, so will not see it as a cheap gift, but a gift of time. You know what I mean? I love to knit, but knitting for people who have no idea how much effort goes into an item, well thats just setting yourself up for heartbreak when they toss it aside like some 12$ Wal-mart souless piece-o-sumpin'.

I've got some great colors for my mom, but she is difficult at best about these kinda things. I might make Dad a couple napkin things with a skull and crossbones on them. He'll get a kick out of having a poison symbol associated with food.

Sister and BIL, I need to call and get her color scheme for their kitchen, Hmmmmmmm

And then there are all the new babies in the family. I want to make Tuck and Tan a baby kimono, they are so soft and wonderfully easy to put on and off. I still owe Lil West something, and now it needs to be something "big brotherish". He seems like a bog Jacket kinda fellah, and thats good year round. His new baby probably has piles of clothes already, so creativity hmmmmmmmmm Kimono for new baby? Yeah, I think so.

Then there is my huge project (Eep). Cousins kids, L, C, H and L. Something hand made for each of them. Especially the older two. They want to feel special, and included so badly. Maybe knowing someone wanted to make something that would not be a hand me down JUST for each of them, no one else, would be a loving thing to do. But what?
Their own blankets. That just came to me. I can knit their names into their blanket so no one can take it from them, and let them know that the whole time it was being made, it was being made JUST for them.
Mental note*make machine washable*