Mar

The Slayers Ventured Outside!

We went camping this weekend. Not too far away, just up to Wheeler Gorge but it’s up in Ojai & honestly, since you aren’t connected easily to the 101 or 126 it seems like a whole other world up there. You have the 33 but most of the traffic going through there is bikers, both the peddling & leather wearing varieties. But I will have to say, I will only rough it so far. If I can’t read and/or knit while out there I want no part of it.

is it odd that I can’t STOP re-reading this book? I don’t know what it is about this book & her voice but I am just sucked right in.

And after dark this is what the view was from my seat

Honestly, knitting plain lovely knit in the round by campfire is a very soothing experience. Maybe that was the 5-8 beers I had with it (friends don’t let friends knit drunk!)? Either way, the light showing through the back of the knitting was enough to keep me on track even when I split or dropped a stitch. This weekend was very productive knitting wise. I finished the body of Matt’s sweater (god I know why I procrastinated on this! Ladies, my husband is a beast. I married a LARGE man. A man capable of heaving a full conversion van out of a ditch when the battery died all by himself. You know those athletic shirts that say x amount of LBS? Well I didn’t know you got the REAL ones in highschool & college & that they were either to give you pride or shame you into what you did for your sport. I regularly wear Matt’s 350XXL shirt. That was as high as they came though he really leg pressed 375LBS. I married a man who’s job it was in football was to knock you down or not let you get through. He was supposed to be a WALL. That’s a lot of stitches.) and 1/2 of a pair of fingerless mitts.

These are not for me because I needed the jaws of life to get out of them. But aren’t they cute in a very granola & yogurt rustic kind of way?

I have to say, it was still a little cold for camping (at least the first night)

Even though this is California, being in the gorge is completely different, it’s ridiculously hot in the summer & freezing in the winter. Thankfully hand knits are plentiful in this family, even the Mr was wearing a luscious Malabrigo hat

There were many interesting birdies to see. It was very distracting you see, when I would finally get in the groove of my knitting (round and round and round zoning out & fantasizing of cables & lace) I would hear a call I didn’t recognize & see a flash of bird & immediately have to run off to see what it was (you see I’m addicted to nature & beasties. I get a very odd sense of satisfaction & a great rush pointing them out to other people). The birdies are mating which means many comical dances are to be seen. Keep your eyes open people, those poor boys are working their tails off for their women! (like it should be any other way.)

Saturday my SIL & niece came up for the day. God I love this kid (but you already knew that!). Miss Mi is probably one of the most completely fearless kids I’ve ever come across.

Case & point. Not many kids would just start walking out into a running creek. Especially at 16 months just to see if there might be “fishies” out there. She was disappointed that there were none to be seen.

This kid makes me ridiculously happy. Almost as happy as this random stick she found made her. God, if only we could all be so thrilled at life. “OMFG a stick!!!! This is the best damn day of my life! A STICK PEOPLE!!! A STIIICCCCCKKKKK!!!!!!!!”

Moments like these make me absolutely love my life.

Nothing is better than an uncle ride!

After all that playing in the stream we were a bit wet, so we set the pants & shoes & socks to dry by the fire. Thankfully we are an innovative family and even when there are no extra pants in the diaper bag we can accommodate fairly well

Yes, those are my husband’s socks Tell me that didn’t make you chuckle!

One last image because I’m appalled YES APPALLED! by what other campers decide to eat while camping. What’s with the hot dogs? Are we seriously that boring & lazy? The Mr has cooked king crab, steamed salmon, & various fresh veggies on the campfire. There is no need to be this fancy as you can easily do as we did below.

I mean really, is it that hard? Just a thought because life is to short for hot dogs (unless they are Hebrew National & then I will gladly chow down with you).

1410 days ago Short URL 3 Comments

california/Family/knit/Knitting/Memories/photography/Picture/Pictures

Mar

Actual-Knitting-Content, I promise!

Seriously, the interweb connection at home has sucked & is being fixed today. Guess we are going to have to retire those little hamsters running our interwebnet generator.

Just because I haven’t been able to post pictures doesn’t mean that the knitting has stopped.

Pattern: Herringbone Mittens by Elephantom

Yarn: 2 Skiens debbie bliss cashmerino

Needles: Size 3 & size 6 DPN’s

Verdict? LOVE them. Making them was a breeze, the chart was fantastic, loved how the thumb was created & ended. Loved the decreases & loved the ease. If these would have been for ME, I would have added 5 billion more repeats because being from the land of Gigantus I have giganto hands & they do not fit me. Don’t let the pictures fool you, these are probably a ladies small. I would need a mens med/large.

Could anything be changed? Yes! You could fiddle with the cuff to create a nice picot edging (oh so cute), maybe some welts? maybe a cute retro flared edge with buttons? I left off the poms because though they are super cute, the recipient wouldn’t be the type to fiddle with poms. *cries*

Please don’t ask me what happened with the cuff. I kinda zoned out for a while there & don’t know. I think I might have 1/2 ribbed & 1/2 welted? I’m not sure. The 1×1 brown red combo before the real pattern starts is all me. For some reason I really like this mind numbing repeat. Maybe I should have done a 2×2 & it would have coincided with the actual pattern better. Kay Sirrah.

“Why yes officer, I am a dork, is that a ticketable offence now a days?”

(at least I’m not trying to do the pistol fingers in mittens. Score one for the home team!)

Last up, a cup full of sweet honey heaven. Flintknits was torturing me with the sunny springy happy yellows she knits so yeah. I have my own (two skeins of jitterbug) but what to do? Something like a wrap or shawl. Help me out people!

On the needles still:

Matt’s Durrow (hybrid raglaned bastard of that pattern I’m doing!)

A new mitten pattern I made up, if you tell me where I can do free knit charts for FREE I will totally do it for ya’ll.

Central Park Hoodie (though I’m making ZERO progress)

1414 days ago Short URL 4 Comments

knit/Knitting/photography/Picture/Pictures

Mar

You think you would survive?

My thought process that is. I guess my boss has decided to handle the ramdon snippets of Preita wisdom by staring at me blankly & walking away. Gotta love having that affect.

It started with talking about ID fraud & my brain went like this

ID fraud->stealing someone’s identity->what if you stole the identity of someone really cool?->Do you think Paris Hilton has to worry about ID theft?->Could anyone else really act as dumb to pull off Paris Hilton?->The accountants phone is the same ring from Jurasic Park where you hear the satelite phone from the belly of the T-Rex->Who chooses that ring on purpose?->I’m sure Bach wasn’t planning on having his masterpiece playing out of someone’s ass pocket either though->Why do they even bother to make womens pants with out pockets?->Who does that bennefit?->It’s probably one of the worst feelings being with out pockets but having things to put in them.->Actually, being burned alive is worse I’m sure. -> there are actually a lot of things worse than that.->God That was dumb.->Not as dumb as the guy at the gas station this morning who actually ripped the hose off the pump doing god knows what.-> God I laughed my ass off when he scraped the crap out of his beamer too.->man I’m a jerk.->At least I’m a smart jerk->HA!->I wonder why people are so afraid of real work that they commit ID Fraud?-> They can’t be dumb because that shit is hard.->well, unless you are England and loose 3/4 of your populations social security numbers in IOWA.->How could you loose anything in Iowa?->All you would have to do is climb to the top of a water tower & find it. ->Do we have a flatter state?->God I hate iowa.->Actually I really hate Indiana.->Fucking terrible weather every time I drive through that state.->How come people from Indiana call themselves Hoosers when they have no idea what it means?->People from Wisconsin get called Cheeseheads but that makes sense, what with the cows.->Do they call people from Minnesota anything?->I don’t think so, they mainly just ask you if you are from Fargo.->God people are dumb.

So yeah. I got nothing. I have knitting to show you all, but obviously I’m to lazy to upload pictures. Nice.

Happy MONDAY!

1416 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Uncategorized

Mar

Getting Stuck with Needles

Today I made an appointment for next monday with an acupuncturist specializing in infertility. I’m feeling a little sense of hope creep back in, but trying to remain cooly realistic about the whole situation. There are things out there that I can’t explain and if my own OBGYN couldn’t explain properly how clomid is supposed to make women ovulate then I think getting stuck with a few needles isn’t going to hurt anything.

Guess we will see.

1417 days ago Short URL 5 Comments

california

Mar

I’m not Christian and I wasn’t raised that way, thus Easter is not a holiday that involves me in the least. I go through the motions for my husband’s family (even forcing myself to eat a little ham). I can appreciate cute kids in their finest clothes & chocolate & eggs even with out taking a savior though. Point & Case,

Can we have a collective “Awwwwwww”

And of course she was not the only one to be forced to wear things on their heads.

Tyler took quite a bit of rangling to get this, where as Ed below didn’t care in the least.

And just to prove that we don’t smile ALL the time

“Sometimes Auntie Preita is just down right annoying with that camera!”

Hope you all had a nice weekend, I do have FO’s to show if I remember to take pictures!

1417 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

california/Family/photography/Picture/Pictures

Mar

Alternatives

Yesterday was a little hard on the emotional front. Somehow babies were brought up at work & the usual (good natured & completely unaware) pestering started. Yes, Matt and I have been married 5 years, yes yes yes. *sigh*

Also, babies were brought up at knitting and it was way more helpful. (I think this has to do with 1. the age of the group, these women are older than me and have seen so much more & had to comfort friends & support family through so much more than people my age have, & 2. they come from such a wide range of background and experiences that someone has usually dealt with anything you are sometime in the past).

See, since I had my D & C & HGC last June I have been really hesitant to have anyone else poking around my body (and in it) “trying” to figure out what the problem is & the “maybe this will work” attitude is beyond distressing. So I have been riding the fence about how much further I wanted to go. I stopped taking hormones and such in January because frankly, I hated who I was on them. They made me a person I didn’t like very much. So basically I was in a holding pattern & getting a little more depressed about it with each passing week. This isn’t something you snap out of or ever are truly ok with.

I don’t think that anyone who has not gone through this could ever imagine what all is involved and how you feel about it.

I like this picture because it’s very MC Escher. You probably have no idea where I was standing in this picture or which direction is truely up. I think this sums up very well how one feels going through many stages of infertility.

But yeah, so Miss Teri brought up that someone she knew used acupuncture. And that it worked. Now I don’t know if it actually worked or if biology was key here, but the thing is that this is a way cheaper option. And honestly, when you only have a 15% chance with IUI and roughly the same with IVF why not give it a try? I will chew nasty herbs if it increases my chances, I mean, what’s the difference between that & injecting yourself with man made hormones? (frankly, and I hate to admit this, I would drink poo flavored tea if it would mean I would actually get pregnant). So yeah, I found this and I filled out a contact form. I think I’m at least going to go in and see what it’s about.

I’ve always had to work a little harder than most people for what I want, but that usually means that I am more open minded to places off the beaten path if it will get me the same results. My mom always said “Work smarter, not harder”. Coming from a woman who is the opitomy of hard work (she was the first union woman carpenter in the state of Minnesota) you know she didn’t get where she was by being dumb.

This all said, I am still probably at the happiest point in my life that I have been in quite some time. I honestly really like my job (love would intail me magically becoming a CEO New York power bitch or a well paid nature photographer), my family is amazing, I constantly get to squish my niece and knitting is still my zen.

So cheers to new experiences, and new pathways. We will see where they take us.

1420 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Family

Mar

Happy Love Thursday

Taking a cue from Cassie this week & celebrating Love Thursday. My life is so incredibly filled with uncompromising and unconditional love these days that it seems to bubble over into everything. I truely have the best family in the world. My inlaws, yeah, well, I honestly don’t think that you could have asked for better people to be your family. I am truely blessed.

So what do I love? I loved taking pictures of this rusty old International Harvester Truck. I loved the colors & the textures & the lighting.

As usual, no editing because I’m to lazy to bother. The fun for me is trudging through the brush & weeds & lizards to find intresting pictures.

I am also completely in love with this little girl.

Our little Miss Mi. I could not ask for a more wonderful, beautiful, wicked smart, funny little girl to be my niece. Obviously my sister in law & brother in law have very good genetics & are deffinately the most awesome parents ever.

I also love this man more than a life time could ever express.

Yes, even when he gives me that face when I’m trying to take a nice picture.

Lately life has been pretty smooth which allows us to start looking back and laugh a little at how hard & stupid it was in the recent past. If you can’t laugh in the face of hardship you are doomed to drown in it.

1421 days ago Short URL 4 Comments

california/Family/love/photography/Picture/Pictures/thoughts

Mar

Sometimes you surprise yourself.

This may look dark on your monitor but in real life it’s not at all. It’s perfectly balanced on higher quality monitors.

As usual, no editing or photoshop enhancing. I truely believe that if it’s not a good picture to begin with all the editing & fiddling in the world won’t save it.

This little girl is the sun of our lives. I took more pictures yesterday, but this is just a taste. There may or may not have been bunny ears involved.

1423 days ago Short URL Comments

california/Family/love/photography/Picture/Pictures

Mar

Endpaper Mitts & More

This weekend was highly productive. Matt and I started looking at rentals which included me breaking into a house (it was empty don’t worry) through the wood shoot.

I also managed to take pictures of my finished Endpaper Mitts. Actually my SIL took the pictures for me as, well, my hands were occupied

Endpaper Mitts

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashermino, 2 skiens

Needles: Size 3 DPN

I finally got my way through this pattern. Only took 2 false starts & a heavier weight yarn as the yarn recomended caused a way to tight & tiny mitt for my scandinavian hands.

I am rediculously thrilled with this knit. I really love them and I most likely will do them again!

I also have the jitterbug doily blocked.

A fun useless knit.

I’m also working my way through the Lace Ribbon Scarf. The henry’s attic prime alpaca is beautiful to work with & one skien is 600+ yards. This deffinately will take me a while to work through but I’m sure that I will love it to death once I’m done. The lace is pretty easy & rewarding.

And a detail shot.

I’m about 45% done with the herringbone mitts for my cousin & they are rediculously cute. They are small but I know that the debbie bliss stretches a bit & I can block them bigger. Slowly but surely I’m really trying to work down my stash. Since we are probably going to be moving with in the next month or so I’d like to have things more in order by then.

1424 days ago Short URL 4 Comments

Knitting/photography/Picture/Pictures

Mar

Week Report

400+ yards of sport weight Henry’s Attic Prime Alpaca in light grey was cast on today for the Lace Ribbon Scarf. I have Araucania Nature Wool Chunky in Olive coming in the mail for make Nob Hill and I plan on finally finishing up a few straggler projects I have lying around.

I have finished the endpaper mitts & they are so tooth rootingly cute (sorry no photos yet). I have 1/2 of the herringbone mittens finished & they are adorable & tiny & going to someone else who needs mittens because Lake Erie is cold. I’m finally going to re-cast on (for the 4th time) Matt’s durrow. Because I love him I won’t tell you how much I already hate this sweater.

This weekend Matt and I are getting our taxes done. I think this will be the first year ever we will not have to owe money. I honestly will never understand the child deduction and the marriage penalty. Our government wonders why we have so many unwed mothers & fathers? Do the math, it makes financial sense.

Last night was the baby shower for a lady in our knitting group. It seems like she has really expanded in 2 weeks so she must be close. I left early. Baby showers are still quite painful for me and celebrating another person’s fertility isn’t something I can do right now, even if that does drop my karma points.

I’m starting to explore IUI. It’s something I said that I wouldn’t do, I said that I wouldn’t go past the fertility drugs, but I think I lied. I don’t know how far I’m willing to go anymore, but I know that I still want this more than anything in the world (so does my husband) and I’m willing to research more and more options I once considered un-doable.

Also? Some wisdom for the day, unless you know why someone already doesn’t have children (either that they don’t want to, are waiting, or something else) don’t ask. It’s never going to be any of your business, it’s embaressing, there is never a good enough answer. It’s just plane never ok. Asking someone every other day this question (as I have recently been privelaged to) is playing with fire.

1427 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Knitting

Mr Poopers Day Out

Posted in March 2008 …